Finding A Passion for Education by Kyla

Finding A Passion for Education by Kyla - July 2014 Scholarship Essay

My AP Literature teacher Mrs. Mary Beth Draving immensely impacted the way I view the world around me and the value of education. I didn’t even want to take that class, but I went ahead and took it because I was told I could handle it. The first day of school I received Mrs. Draving as a little flighty, but she didn’t believe in laziness and celebrated knowledge and understanding. Me being a lazier student at the time, I had a feeling we would bump heads throughout the long school year.

However, I remember the day my mind began to change about her. Our class was reading a historical fiction book called 'The Sorrow of War' by Bao Ninh. The book follows the stream of consciousness of the main character and his life and recollections of memories from the Vietnam War. Social studies and history have never been my favorite subjects. I used to get so frustrated because I never understood why we had to spend so much time learning about the past, especially when none of my teachers related it to my teenage experiences. I was always told “those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it”, but it was never enough for me. I didn’t really understand it all until that unit with Mrs. Draving. She and Bao Ninh just really made the historical events of the war come alive for me. The way she made us know about the Vietnam War prior to reading the book made the concepts of the story make sense to me. She didn’t have to do that; she’s an English teacher, not a social studies teacher. But Mrs. Draving just had connected other subjects to English, and then she challenged us to make the connections to our daily life. I love history now, and I never thought I would say that. I’m actually looking forward to taking history classes in college.

Another experience with Mrs. Draving that changed my view on education forever was the unit where our class read '1984' by George Orwell. It was published in 1949 and is a utopian novel about a city that is ruled under a nonexistent power that oppressed citizens in order to keep them peaceful, undyingly loyal, and obedient. Before we read the book, Mrs. Draving did an exercise that was so unforgettable. She pretended like it was an ordinary instructional day. Except for she gave us a sheet of new school rules. Some of the rules were simple, others were not. One rule prohibited any food or drink, including water, and if you needed it, too bad. If we failed to comply we would be written up. She also was filming us, and we didn’t even get the right to refuse. Then she told our class to sign a vow of chastity since it was around the time of prom, so we wouldn’t end up like teenage parents who ruined their lives with irresponsible decision making. She even gave us a ribbon to pin to our shirt. Most of us, like oppressed citizens, were so scared to speak out, we complied—whether we agreed to it internally or not. One student spoke out and he was sent to the principal’s office. A few more verbally expressed that it wasn’t fair. Soon students were crying and verbally disagreeing, and finally my teacher broke. She told us it was just an exercise and that it wasn’t real. (She also apologized a lot; she said she never had so many kids cry and be that upset in years past. Her intentions were not to hurt us.) The purpose of the exercise was to mimic the oppression that was depicted in '1984'. There were the majority of people that fully complied for one reason or another. Then there were the smaller minority of those who spoke out against the higher power but did it as they complied. And then there were the radicals, who spoke out and were going to do something about it. I remember sitting in my seat thinking, “This just doesn’t sound right. Don’t we have rights?” But I never did anything. I actually tried to speak out, but a girl sitting near me told me to be quiet so I wouldn’t get in trouble. And so I didn’t call the teacher out. But that exercise sticks with me because it showed me what type of person I was. I wasn’t raised to be one that goes with the crowd, especially if the crowd is going the wrong way. I also learned that I need to be more aware of my rights as an American citizen. That way if I’m ever being oppressed I’ll be educated enough to know, and I will speak out.

Mrs. Draving allowed me to have a passion for being educated that I didn’t have prior to being in her class. I see why schools push for the Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs, because they help you to be more of a global thinker. The lessons and stories we read allow us to have experiences with the characters that help us as students become better able to understand different people and societies. Mrs. Draving challenged me to become a better-rounded student and understand why getting an education is crucial to our lives as people. Education, especially literature, connects us as people to each other.