The Growth Through Learning by Danielle

The Growth Through Learning by Danielle - November 2015 Scholarship Essay

Education was not a concept that I understood as a child. I did not understand the routine of waking up at an ungodly hour to go to my private school and sit through horribly mundane lessons I was not particularly interested in. I was also, I do not want to say that I was 'forced', but it felt that way due to the fact that I am Chinese and my “Tiger Mom” had decided most of my educational and educational paths for me. Fortunately for my mother, I have a naturally competitive nature and so excelling in my classes was something that I have always strived for. This persisted all through pre-school, and kindergarten.

After kindergarten, they say that your “real” education begins. I began to grow more and more competitive amongst my classmates though we were young. I would score the highest in spelling tests, typing tests, definition tests, and arithmetic tests. The few times I would receive “second best” would devastate me. This fierce characteristically competitive nature of mine persisted even through my high school years, however, I began to see things differently when I started College.

I had declared Philosophy as my major (which my mother was unhappy about) and was extremely enthusiastic and eager to take my first college class in a subject that I have a great sense of passion for. This professor, Professor Lopez, had an unusual yet ingenious approach as to his relationship with the students amongst our class.
He called role through our school identification numbers and only wanted us to write our identification numbers on our essays and assignments. The only “connection” he would have with our class, is facial recognition. He would never ask for our names. By not knowing the names of his students, he ran a classroom that was fair and orderly. I learned from Professor Lopez that everyone deserves to be graded fairly and unprejudiced by favoritism. The acceptance and understanding of his method of teaching allowed me to realize that competing against my other classmates was something that did not matter. What mattered was doing better than how I did the last time.

This philosophy class taught by Professor Lopez is still the most memorable and my favorite class that I have taken in college. He changed my outlook on what an education is and allowed me to finally reach an understanding of what it is. The fact that I no longer fight to be the best out of all the students in my class really allowed me to focus more on myself. I was also able to apply myself to my own work, without the back-thought that someone could do better than I. This alleviated a lot of the unnecessary stress I had previously been carrying on my shoulders for many, many years. For a class with a professor that was only meant to teach a class called An Introduction to Philosophy, I gained more than an affirmation of my decision to major in philosophy. I will continue to follow the unspoken lessons that I have gained from him in the future for other classes and also in life.