Isolated by Kenley

Isolated by Kenley - July 2022 Scholarship Essay

Education plays an important role in my life. As the daughter of an Assistant Principal and Music teacher, I have been taught from a young age about the importance of education. Since Kindergarten, I have always made it a priority to work hard and excel academically. I am currently a sophomore in college, and I can say, from personal experience, that a change I hope to see in education in the next 10 years is more personalized learning in the classrooms. Our world has evolved, and education is struggling to keep up with those changes.
Presently, education is highly influenced by the internet. With COVID affecting classrooms worldwide, education has lost its drive and emotional connectivity. During COVID, education hit a major roadblock, but it did allow technology to be utilized in spectacular ways. However, with everything being online, the emotional connectivity that teachers had with their students became nearly non-existent. Even though online education was not very personable, it was convenient in many ways. The convenience of online education is what makes it so prevalent to this day. In the future, I hope to see education take a step back from impersonal online learning and resort back to personalized classrooms where children can strive in a setting where the saying “one education fits all” is not the center focus.
Education should be learner driven. Personalized learning would incorporate the student’s needs, strengths, skills, backgrounds, experiences, and interests. Students should be afforded the opportunity to play an active role in their own learning. Students learn differently and at varying speeds. Personalized learning would give students the opportunity to learn at their own pace. This style of learning would transform schools, it would revolutionize learning. Teachers would get to know their students once again and meaningful relationships would be established. Students would regain the social skills that were lost during online learning.
This change that I hope to see in education is one that will take some time. It is most definitely not something that will shift overnight. However, I hope in the next 10 years that educators and administrators will shift their focus on cultivating an environment of personable learning which will create a generation that values learning because it means something personal to them. This shift might lead to eliminating standardized testing and instead focusing on the skills that will better prepare students to be successful adults. Education should be a rewarding experience rather than a chore. Personalized learning would form better humans which will positively impact our world and generations to come.