Education Is More Than What You Learn In School by Montana

Education Is More Than What You Learn In School by Montana - December 2014 Scholarship Essay

What someone learns in school is what they learn for life. School teaches more than just Math, Science, and English. School teaches about perspective, the world students lives in, and about themselves. In school students will learn about who they are, what they are interested in, and what they want to do for the rest of their life. Education has done a lot to shape me, but mostly it has taught me how valuable an education really is, how appreciative I should be regarding my education, and how much I still have to learn. In turn this has made me a more engaged student, a more appreciative human being, and a more respectful individual.

Education is always being priced; just look at college tuition costs. What I have found though, is that education might have many prices on it, but none of them are correct. In reality no one can price an education, because education is priceless. A teacher may think they are teaching a biology lesson, when in reality they could be inspiring a student to pursuit a fruitful career in medicine. A student may think they are taking a class on writing when in reality they are learning what could one day make them the next Charles Dickens. As I sit in my classes at my university, I can’t help but think to myself “Great minds discovered what I am just now learning, and other great minds learned the same thing in their classes at their schools.” This made me realize the only difference between those who became great and those who didn’t is how they utilized what they were taught in school. Knowing this has made me more engaged in my classes, no matter what it is. Whether it is a general elective or a class for my major; everything I am taught is useful and taught to make me a more equipped citizen. This perspective has made me value my education that much more and has made me a more engaged and productive member of society.

In many places all over the world education is not provided or easily accessible to everyone. Even in the United States there was a time where minorities, women, or lower class citizens were not educated. The world has come far since then, but there is still an obvious lack of literacy and other education around the globe. Take Malala Yousafzai, the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, she earned it when she fought for every child in Pakistan to be educated—women included. She was shot and nearly died for her efforts to bring a change to the education system. Courageous people like her inspire me, and incidences like hers remind me of how blessed I am. I was raised in a country where everyone can be educated and in a world where people like Malala are rewarded as heroes for their efforts. Being able to get an education has made me more appreciative and more aware of my blessings.

My economics teacher in high school told me that I would go from feeling like I’ve learned all there is to know (in high school) to feeling like I’ve learned so much and yet nothing at the same time (in college). My teacher was right. In my first semester of college I learned more than I would have thought possible a year ago. I learned so much about the subjects that my classes taught that very often I wouldn’t be able to help but smile at the end of the unit or chapter. I smiled because I was so interested in the material that I impressed I was able to accomplish a comprehensive understanding of the unit. There was always something that I noticed while I studied though—I had a never ending number of questions. It wasn’t enough to know that isotopes were often radioactive; I wanted to know why the number of neutrons in an atom determined whether or not it was radioactive. I was always asking why something worked and not just how. It made me realize there is an infinite amount of knowledge out there that I don’t know and that someone figured out so that it can be taught. I want to make the absolute most out of my education and I’m so much more respectful now knowing how much I still have to learn and knowing that it’s these classes I take that will teach it to me.

School has always been a significant part of my life. It shaped my ideas and my perspective. Not only did my education tell me about the world I live in; it also told me about myself. My education gave me insight into the value of learning and an appreciation of what I am taught. My education also made me more aware of how much work someone did before me to discover the information that I was learning about in my classes; which in turn made me more respectful and even more appreciative. My education is more than just learning about a few subjects; it’s about taking what I learn and expanding on it. It’s about taking those classes and letting them shape me.