Reflection on Access and Education.

I tried to include every single thoughts and concerns in my three pages paper about education and then I realized that it is impossible. I hit the writing center and bothered my tutor, attacking her brain with my ideas on Thursday night; however, I found serendip is the right place to arrange my thoughts.

      In my paper, I argued that equal educational opportunity is essential for individual because education would change one’s thoughts internally and affects one’s behavior and action externally. Education is able to provide theories (even though its intended range includes the praxis part) so one will be able to learn by combining personal experience and positive cognition of objects. Based on this definition of education, theories need a solid base and experiences would be concrete supporting material for those theories; even though some abstract learning process, say studying math, personal evolvement is important: one should study in a critical and positive way instead of memorizing formulas passively.

        For the cost of the access, I think it’s largely depends on one’s family. First, one’s family and the original education provided by one’s parent largely define one’s personality and characteristics. For example, a young child is more likely to be eloquent if his/her parent is well-educated; or one would be introverted because his/her family environment is overbearing and controlling. Second, in an affluent family, many resources would be accessible. In an affluent family, if a student need to apply for a college, he/she doesn’t need to worry about tuition; if one student is not good at math, he/she could find a tutor easily. Those resources are not equally accessible for a student coming from a middle-class family. Meanwhile, chances are that some ambitious students are aggressive because they have ambitious parents while some introverted students’ parents are more introverted and humble.

        My writing partner’s paper is really interesting and inspirational. She discussed the importance of not limiting one’s learning experience inside textbook, getting evolve into the community and relying one’s personal experience in the learning process. An interesting question did arise after I read: what would the diversity of community contribute to our learning experience? Why Bryn Mawr chose to accept so many international students and why would international students chose Bryn Mawr? Why would diversity benefit the community? I think when I have the access to know other people and to share our stories with one another; I have an insight to the whole world. Even if this insight might be partial, it would make me thinking about myself as well as the world.