The Purpose of Education

The purpose of education is to build a foundation of knowledge that allows students to ask questions and reflect upon experiences to understand complex concepts. Education is not just about grades, advancement, or school. Education is everywhere and regardless of the situation in which we encounter ourselves in, we will learn something new or at less understand something in much deeper level. My journey stars abroad where I learned that education is about conceptual understanding rather than having random disconnected fact. In order to reach conceptual understanding, it is necessary to be able to make connections. Education is not an independent task, but rather a collaboration of information, people and experiences to enhance the learning better. Inspired by our educational autobiography and the development of my purpose of education, I decided to do a little profile on the major institutions that helped shaped this one. I believe in experiences having a big role in educatio

Type: Institution of higher learning Private Institution Population: 1,700 students Degree: Undergraduate Cool fact: Bryn Mawr has a lot of traditions, among which is lantern night.  Acceptance rate: 40% As the time for my most recent journey to end is fast approaching, I would like to take this opportunity to talk about what I have learned thus far at Bryn Mawr. This has been a time of self-discovery and I had been able to learn to feel comfortable with silence. At first, I would feel really uncomfortable when silence filled a classroom, which is no longer the case. I better comprehended the reasons why the schools I attended were doing something right or not. Through a deep analysis I found a new respect for differences. Coming into college I had the typical mentality that if I can do it, why can’t the person next to me do it. Similarly, I would beat myself up for not being able to do something that someone else may had been able to do. There are so many facto

Population: about 700 students Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Type: Charter School Grades: 7th-8th Ratio: 14-1  Interesting fact: Mastery is a large charter school network taking over failing school in Philadelphia and Camden The second to last final stop on this journey was my pre-college preparation. I attended high school at a charter school, which I started at the beginning of 8 th grade. Mastery—the name of the school—prides itself with being a college preparatory high school that takes over failing schools in the district. Since college was the next step in my future, I was glad the school offered some of the support and partnerships it did. My junior and senior of high school I had the opportunity to take classes Math classes at Saint Joseph’s University. I was also able to do my senior year at the Community College of Philadelphia. I participated in the MAST program at Haverford and the ICC program at Saint Joseph’s. I attended a conference at Buck

Population: N/A Location: 33 states Type: Cyber School Grades: K-12th Number of Teachers: 90 School-day duration: flexible schedule Interesting fact: promote tailoring curriculum to meet each individual student's need Connections Academy seemed like the perfect place to avoid everything I hated about Lamberton. Home had become a safe heaven, so it only made sense that I would just stay at home and learn by myself. It had always been my dream to learn at my own pace. What would be so hard about it? I understood some English, so I would not be completely clueless. Right? …. No, I could have never been more mistaken in my life. I was excited when the box with all the textbooks and resources arrived. To this day I remember completing my first lesson and thinking that it was not hard, I would have the same feeling until I would be tested on a subject. Until late into the game, I realized that I was not following all the instructions given by the le

Population: around 600 students Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Type: Public School Grades: K-8th Grade Teacher to student ratio: 1-17 School-day duration: 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM Interesting fact: After it was first founded in 1949, Lamberton also housed a high school until 2013 The Lamberton experience was more traumatic because it is when I first realized how much the environment in which I am affects my desire and ability to learn. I remember walking down the halls of the school for the time and realizing how dark the halls were. I could not believe that Lamberton was the school I would be attending that year. I vividly remember coming home with tears streaming down my face at the end of my first school day there. From there, I remember begging my mother to let me stay home every single day. I would go to school 2 out 5 days in the week. I was also part of ESL and teacher’s classroom located in the little school house. The difference between t

The School's Profile Population: 455 students Location: Bronx, New York Type: Public School Grades: 6th-8th Number of Teachers: 90 School-day duration: 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM Interesting fact: Closed or merged with another school due to poor performance The next stop on the Maria Education Train is Elizabeth Barrett Browning, also known as M.S 399. This is a public middle school in New York City, and the first school I attended in the United States. In this school I was placed in a bilingual classroom, not exactly bilingual. Rather all of our classes were taught in Spanish and we had two hours of English every day depending on English ability. From my 6 th grade class, I have very distant memories except for those that marked a before and after in my education. I vividly recall my Spanish Literature class and my teacher Ms. Lopez. She gave us a composition book and asked us to write on it every day for 15 minutes at the beginning of class. The journal hel

This is the school's current physical appearance. Kindergarden to Fifth Grade Population: around 400 students Location: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Type: Private Catholic School Administrators: Passionists nuns Grades: Pre-K to 8th grade School-day duration: 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM Fun fact: Recess and lunch were combined The first school I ever attended was “El Colegio San Benito,” also known as “el colegio de las monjas” – or the “nun’s school.” This was a small Pre-kindergarten to eight grades catholic school in a small barrio of the Dominican Republic. Growing up, this was the school I liked the most because of my ability to connect easier to those around me. However, looking back at the experience, there were multiple problematic aspect of the school. The schools had (and still has) very strict rules about dress code and respect. Students were expected to arrive every day with clean uniform, braids or ponytail. There were weekly nail che