Respecting Our Elders by Courtney

Respecting Our Elders by Courtney - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

Over the years I have attended elementary school, middle school, and high school. The grand total comes to 12 years of education prior to college. Each year in school I received another adult, different than the one before, who would try to explain functions of the world to my classmates and myself. My kindergarten teacher taught us how to count, spell, read, and use our manners. Each teacher following her proceeded to elaborate on all of those topics.

It wasn’t until third grade when I really began to notice changes in my educational experience. At that age we were expected to read so many books and test over what we read. We were also expected to learn about the world of science. My third grade teacher tried to teach us how things work in this crazy and confusing world and successfully gave us an understandable introduction to science. Science became another subject teachers could expand our knowledge on until we graduated.

In fourth grade my class and I made big transitions. Not only was it the first year that we actually had homework, but it was also the first year we ever had a male teacher! On top of that, yet another subject was added to our list of things to learn. Learning about the state history was the least favorite subject out of everyone. Luckily, as we grew up it became more broad and was just history.

Middle school came and went by fast. With all of the moving around to other classrooms and all of the athletics, all four school years just blur together. However, I will never for get the lesson we learned from our math teacher about the importance of showing our work. This lesson was quickly learned after we all failed an easy multiplication assignment simply because we were too lazy to write down our thoughts in the process of solving the equation.

Then came high school. My class and I became our own individuals as we entered the lobby our freshman year. Our classes weren’t the same any more and by then we all had our own group of friends we enjoyed spending time with. We still saw each other in the required classes, but we were not as chatty or close as we were in middle school and elementary. Each of our high school teachers was even stricter than our previous teachers, which was very hard to believe.

Our high school teachers each had valuable lessons to be taught during our four years together. My science teacher taught us the importance of proving facts. My history teacher taught us the importance of understanding history in order to react appropriately when it reoccurs. My math teacher taught us the importance of checking our work to make sure the job was done properly. My English teacher taught us the importance of expressing ourselves correctly. My physical education teacher taught us the importance of a healthy lifestyle in order to increase our lifespan. My technology teacher taught us how to operate the tools adults now depend on daily such as computers, tablets, phones, and more. My agriculture teacher taught us the importance of food production and marketing. And my Spanish teacher taught us the importance of becoming bilingual in the diverse world we live in.

Throughout all of the years of education I have received so far, multiple lessons were explained and fewer lessons were learned. However, my Spanish teacher taught me the one lesson I will never forget. As the younger generation, it is easy to think that everything we know is right and there is nothing else to learn. However, what we don’t realize is how truly wrong we are. We only know a sliver of the information on this planet and we are too narrow minded to accept the fact that we aren’t done learning no matter how old we are.

We must respect our elders, as they are far more knowledgeable and experienced. They have seen and lived through the operations of this world. Therefore, it is highly important that we respect them as people, as instructors, as guides, and even as informers. Because of my Spanish teacher, I now make a conscious note to myself daily that I must respect my elders without a second thought.