The community-junior college, typically considered an American creation, became part of the educational system in the early 1900s. Despite its growth in number, the identity crisis of the community-junior college has been a topic of discussion for many years. What is the community-junior college? Is it higher education or secondary education? Are there any differences between the "junior" college and the "community" college? This problem, I think, results from the lack of the intensive historical study. This paper is an introduction to a historical analysis and interpretation of the community-junior college idea and its emergence. I will try to reveal the thoughts and actions of Henry P. Tappan, William R. Harper, David S. Jordan, Alexis Lange, Leonard V. Koos and Walter C. Eells, who were much influcened by social forces such as German elitism, Darwinism, Progressivism, social efficiency and innovations in technology. The theme which is underlying the stages of development, I think, is to broden the concept of "community services". In this study, the term community-junior college is employed to hypothesize that the community college is the historical continuation of the junior college and to symbolize the common ideas that these institutions shall be "community" institutions and "open" to their communities.
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