Top 10 College Lessons from “Community”

"Community" was one of the best and funniest new comedies of the 2009-10 season ("Modern Family" is another title on the short list), using a great ensemble and rule-bending writing to play with sitcom conventions. The tale of a ragtag group of friends at the fictional Greendale Community College made for some fantastic moments that riffed on modern college courses, so it’s no stretch to apply the stories to real life. Here are the top 10 college lessons from "Community" to get you ready for next semester:

1. Work together: College is, in all likelihood, going to be tougher than your previous years of schooling. As an advisor told me when I was a freshman, "This isn’t the 13th Grade." It takes real focus to work at the university level, as well as a willingness to commit yourself to finding new methods of learning. One of the best things you can do at college is learn to rely on your classmates. Case in point: Annie and Shirley teamed up to work as security guards during April Fool’s Day and wound up putting their heads together to figure out who pulled a major prank.
2. Remember to goof off: Troy and Abed are one of the best dynamic duos on TV, willing to be silly and weird and always up for a good time. The tags at the end of each episode, in which Troy and Abed do something that’s often unrelated to the rest of the episode’s plot, perfectly encapsulate the random moments of goofing off that form friendships for life. Plus, how awesome would it be to actually make your own version of Kickpuncher?
3. Know your strengths: At the end of the first episode, Jeff was able to unite the study group and turn them into a functioning community, and he did it by highlighting their individual strengths. Instead of seeing each other as outcasts, they recognized that they each brought something unique to the group, from Abed’s extensive pop culture knowledge to Annie’s determination to succeed. The same lesson applies in a real college setting:
4. Relationships can be tricky: Jeff was all over the map in the show’s first season, dating a professor, hooking up with Britta, and even enjoying some flirting with Annie. (Which is technically pretty risky, since she’s supposed to be 19 and he’s in his 30s.) Every new romantic entanglement brought more problems, not least of which was the ever more complex minefield that was Jeff and Britta’s relationship, which started the season as rocky and adversarial and ended with them sleeping together (!) in "Modern Warfare" before she said she loved him (!!) in "Pascal’s Triangle Revisited." The lesson: Always, always, always be prepared for relationships to get complicated, especially if you get romantic with a friend.
5. There will always be annoying people: Britta’s ex-boyfriend, Vaughn, is a pretty typical example of a modern hippie/frat tool: Prone to shirtlessness, a fan of hacksack, and never far from his acoustic guitar. He gets on the gang’s nerves, especially when he briefly dates Annie, a move that upsets Britta and Jeff for a variety of reasons. (For starters, Britta thinks it’s crass of Annie to date her ex, while Jeff feels protective of Annie and still a little attracted to her.) But the gang learns to tolerate him, if not completely like him, which is an important lesson for students everywhere. Sometimes, you will find yourself living or working with someone you just don’t like, and you’ll have to learn to get along.
6. Power can be dangerous: In "Contemporary American Poultry," the gang installs Abed as the cafeteria’s new fry cook to give them access to the tasty chicken fingers, the most popular item on the menu. In a brilliant parody of GoodFellas, the gang uses their newfound ability to distribute the food to take over the school and become the most popular — and powerful — clique on campus. However, the plan goes too far when they become corrupt, and they have to pull the plug. The broader lesson is that there will always be opportunities to get ahead, but some of those will come with too high a price. From time to time, take a step back and ask if what you’re doing might have negative consequences.
7. It’s never too late to chase your dreams: Early on in the series, it becomes clear that Abed is a lover of movies even though his dad wants him to join the family falafel business. Britta pays to enroll him in a film course, leading to a confrontation with Abed’s father, but Abed’s documentary about his life and dreams strikes a chord with his dad, who agrees to let Abed pursue his filmmaking. In a university setting, it can be tempting to settle for something you don’t want or to take the path of least resistance, but you’ll be happier if you stick to your guns and chase your dreams.
8. Be open to others’ beliefs: Shirley, a devout Christian, was shocked to learn that many of her classmates didn’t have the same belief system: Annie is Jewish, Abed is Muslim, Troy’s a Jehovah’s Witness, Jeff is agnostic, Pierce is Buddhist, and Britta is an atheist. The news was tough for her to take at first, but she eventually warmed to the fact that it was okay for her friends to believe differently than she does. This is an extremely important lesson for college students, who find themselves living and hanging out with people of vastly different belief systems. The message is to value your beliefs without maligning others’ and to show respect for everyone.
9. There’s always someone better: Jeff is cool and knows it — he’s basically Bill Murray in every Murray flick from the 1980s — but in "Beginner Pottery" he gets a comeuppance when he struggles to make a decent pot in what he thinks will be a blow-off class. He’s constantly beaten by another guy in the class, and it takes Jeff getting kicked out and readmitted to the course to finally accept the fact that he just can’t make a good pot. He’s got a lot of gifts, but sculpting isn’t one of them. The lesson: There will always be someone better than you. Instead of trying to beat them, focus on doing the best you can do. Trust me, it’s a lot easier. (Sorry, no clip for this one.)
10. Never give up: The debate episode was a classic one, especially given the way it played up Jeff and Annie’s burgeoning relationship, but the highlight was the showdown in which Greendale College seemed destined to lose their debate. However, Jeff’s ingenuity and Annie’s quick thinking worked together to save the day and procure a win, even one that came at the expense of dropping a handicapped student to the ground. (It’s not as bad as it sounds, I swear.) The moral for real-life students is to never give up, even when it feels like your back is against the wall. Maybe you win, maybe you lose. But the important part is to always go for broke.

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 12th, 2010 at 7:31 am and is filed under Campus Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.