Brenda Moss by Ella

Brenda Moss by Ella - July 2014 Scholarship Essay

Growing up, I was told that one was either good at math and science, or bad at both and good at literature and social studies. I am the odd ball out. My father has always been a math genius whereas my mom is terrible at math but great at literature and history. My little brother is like my mother, with a little science expertise added in. I on the other hand, took from both my parents. I have always been good at literature but my favorite subject has always been math. From third grade learning my multiplication tables to middle school learning algebra, math has always clicked for me. As I entered high school, the work got harder and the teachers got meaner; as did math. As I enter my senior year, my math teacher of my sophomore and junior years remains my favorite teacher. Mrs. Moss has taught me many other things aside from math throughout my past two years though. She taught me what it means to believe in my abilities as a student and hers as a teacher.

As math got harder throughout the years, I began to give up on myself and thought that maybe math was not my strongest subject after all. When I arrived in my sophomore math class, I met a teacher who fought to make me a better student by furthering my will to learn through her skills as a teacher. Math had always come easy to me and I had always just believed that I could teach myself the skills I needed to know to exceed in any math class, but as I entered into harder math classes I realized I was wrong. The math became harder and I could no longer teach myself, but Mrs. Moss was always there for everything that I needed. She tutored me mornings before school, during school and even after. She gave me her number for any questions I was to have and she helped me to understand math once again. I had never had a teacher who wanted to further my education instead of doing only the minimum. It was always about making themselves look good, but never about doing whatever they could to help me succeed.

Although I had always been in gifted math classes, before Mrs. Moss I was never pushed to fully exceed in a class or to strive for the perfect 100. I was never pushed to learn more than needed. In her class though, I did fully exceed and I did receive that 100 in the class. Mrs. Moss was not the lazy teacher who gave out free days, but instead she pushed us to learn something new every single day. She promised us that as long as we worked hard to succeed, she would do everything in her ability to give us excellence. Although I may have been annoyed by that then, I understand now that Mrs. Moss was teaching us all a very important lesson to never give up on our abilities as students, to never give up on our teachers, and to always strive for excellence.

As I begin my last year of high school math, being AP Calculus, I am sad for the fact that Mrs. Moss will no longer be my teacher, but excited for the fact that she has prepared me to exceed in math to come while also believing in my teachers to come. She taught me what it means to believe in my abilities as a student and hers as a teacher. I know that although she is no longer my teacher, I can always go to her for anything where she will push me to believe in myself and my elders, even if math is not involved. That is exactly how the education process should be.