Blossoming of the Standard by Jay

Blossoming of the Standard by Jay - July 2014 Scholarship Essay

Like a creature or plant with DNA, education has a plethora of forms that can mutate and blossom in many different branches, depending on where it is cultivated. When I was younger, my teachers were the type who strictly adhered to state standards and made us students believe that education in the form of reading textbooks, having consistent tests and following objectives would result in a chance to get superior grades. In turn, we students would acquire a fantastic education in college via superior grades and lead an excellent life. This vague, attractive, and repetitive advice was preached constantly, and we were taught that the definition of education was getting good grades in school and acquiring high grades on national exams like the ACT and SAT. I believed every word of it.

After entering high school and looking at my classes, I honestly believed that the definition of education instilled in us students would continue for the next four years. For the most part, I was right; however, my AP Biology teacher Jill Lay showed me that education existed in more forms than the one, and it can come from many sources.

From day one, this magnanimous educator taught us that students weren’t being educated by just reading from a textbook and then doing tests repeatedly. While we were learning information about the subject, true education was having the ability to question, to formulate, and to think outside the standard box of education. Rather than simply quickly cramming for an exam or trying to “learn” material so that one could pass a test, our teacher would refuse to give us steps for a procedure and instead figure out methods to do it instead. Our teacher was building up my classes’ cognitive skills by asking us to formulate our own hypotheses and try to figure out the answers to those hypotheses ourselves. This methodology of her stimulated us to not just do the objectives because of the state standards but because we were genuinely interested in being able to figure things out and understand the concept in a whole new manner.

Since quite a few students in the AP Biology class wanted to have a career in the medical field, she suggested volunteering. I was puzzled since I was not sure what volunteering had to do with medicine. She just looked at me and smiled. That weekend, I went to a local homeless shelter to feed the residents there. As I was distributing out food, I looked at the condition of the residents, and I was able to talk to them and understand what they have been through. Since I grew up in a modest family, I took life and my family for granted. That changed when I talked to an elderly woman who said she was now homeless because her main supported was her husband who passed away in a collision with a drunk driver. She lost her house, her dogs, and he partner all in the blink of an eye. I was educated to not take life for granted and appreciate those who you have around you.

The next weekend, Ms. Lay suggested the library, so I assisted over there. I learned how the library worked, and I met a plethora of different individuals, including doctors, nurses, lawyers, occupational therapists, and a social worker. That day at the library educated me with better conversational skills, and I also gained knowledge as to what those individuals do in life, how they did it, what they liked and disliked about their position, and many more things.

As a junior, I was able to visit different campuses, and see the different campuses. I expected a row of students to be doing bookwork; however, I primarily saw a mix of bookwork and actual work. For example, I saw a student learning how to weld by using machinery that I have never seen before. I witnessed another student taking care of chimpanzees with her professor. Clearly, they were being educated on skills that wasn’t strictly bookwork. They were doing the process that my AP Biology teacher had showed me: formulating their own hypotheses, and trying to figure out the answers to it by themselves. It was truly amazing.

While education in the form of books is needed, that only helps with the academic aspect of a student. Instead, Ms. Lay showed me that true education for the parts of a students in addition to the academic aspect means trying new things, figuring out answers to questions, and learning from that experience. Education is not simply books and grades; it ranges from a mother teaching her baby to speak to figuring out how to construct a building such as the Eiffel Tower. In reality, education is what one gains from his or her own experiences and what lessons can be harvested from those experiences. Depending on where on goes, the education they get can blossom from many places.