Importance of Education

¶ … Education The first person I spoke with was Denise Adams, a neighbor, who is 23 years old. Her educational background consists of just high school. Right now, she is cleaning houses, and not sure that many of the skills she learned in high school have much to do with cleaning houses. Her favorite teacher was Mr. Cook, who was the choir director. Karen enjoyed singing and Mr.

Cook because he had a way of making the students try a little harder at things they were afraid to do and he encouraged them to do things they did not want to do. Her least favorite learning experience had to do with Biology in the tenth grade. The teacher in that class was Ms. Sylvester and she was very difficult and not very nice. She did not explain things well and she did not like students asking a lot of questions.

Denise thinks the school system has improved over the years. She said technology seems to be really good for educational purposes but she does not own a computer and does not really want one, but she can see why people might like them so much. She said never had anything like that when she was in school and thinks they might make the learning experience a little more pleasant.

She believes that a college education is important but it is something a lot of people cannot afford to do or may not have the time to do. She is one of those who has never been able to afford college. She said it might be nice to try for a class or two, but she could never see herself earning a degree.

She simply said that it was not exactly her "personality." Her advice for someone who is starting on an educational path would be to stick it out because it seems like it would be hard to finally graduate. Denise said her people skills have been the most successful for her. She can talk to almost anyone and feel like she has known them most of her life.

She does not mind cleaning houses and she said she is good at it, so it is not something that is hard for her to talk about. She is always running into new people and finding new places to clean. The second person I spoke with was Karen Styles, another neighbor, who is 38 years old. She has a BA in English. Her degree and college experiences in general have helped her do many things that she does today.

She is an editor at a local magazine, so all of the writing classes she took really helped her sharpen my writing skills. Her favorite professor was Mr. Hutchinson, who taught British Literature. He made everything seem interesting and he had an anecdote for every situation. He made poetry that was hard to understand easy to grasp by adding humor. Karen loved the literature classes because they made her realize just how much talent there is in the world. The worst learning experience she had was in philosophy.

Her minor was going to be in philosophy but a few classes with the dean of the philosophy department changed her mind about that. He was very arrogant and difficult as well. His tests were all essay questions, which were always hard to do under the constraints of time. The pressure of studying for the tests and Karen's poor grades on them convinced her that a philosophy minor was not a possibility.

She said the stress involved made it impossible for her to enjoy the classes, much less feel confident about tests. Karen thinks education has come a long way since she was in college. She did not start college until she was an adult and then went to night classes because she worked during the day. It took seven years to finally get a degree, but she is so proud that she did it.

When she was in college, the computer lab consisted of several of those little black and white Macintosh machines. She learned to word process on those machines and also turned her to homework in on floppy discs. Technology has certainly come a long way since then. There was no Internet the way we know of it today. Karen's jobs have enabled her to keep up with the changing technology, which has been great for her.

She manages to work for places that have allowed her to learn some of the best and most fun programs, too. She says that work is a great place to learn new things because companies can usually afford to keep up with the latest and greatest products. Karen believes college is important. Her college experience helped her understand what she likes and does not like. Her advice for anyone just beginning college is to enjoy it as much as learn from it.

The college environment is different from high school and different from a work environment. There is nothing else like it and it can be very rewarding. The greatest feeling of all is earning.