Back then, the classroom was an entire universe ready to be discovered and explored. Nothing was going to stop me from learning everything except the extent of my infinite curiosity. I felt confident in my ability to FOIL binomials. I had learned about different leaf shapes, margins, and venations. I had learned about trilobites and the Paleozoic Era. Homophones and homonyms. The constellation Cassiopeia. I had painted flowers inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe and wrote to a Peace Corps volunteer serving in Morocco. Within the Montessori environment, I was surrounded by diversity in both culture and academic subjects. I began learning about human emotions: how to recognize my own, understand them, and express them in ways that were appropriate.
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They were my heroes, my mentors, and my inspiration. I wanted to be just as fascinating and enthusiastic as they were in my eyes. Soon enough, I knew I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. And so I learned from them, instilling the Montessori principles they taught deep into my personal value system and immersing myself in the ocean of interesting things to explore. It was not until I left that familiar, safe environment that I realized just how much the values and skills I learned—such as empathy and inclusion—were needed in the “real world.”
When I entered the public school system in the ninth grade, I was unprepared to interact with types of people I had rarely encountered before. While most of the people I met were amazing, intelligent, and enthusiastic students like myself, I found others who were disinterested in learning, unengaged, apathetic, and indifferent. Cliques. People who were completely ignored. People with unrealized passions and …show more content…
Music became another universe for me to explore. Music came alive, breathing culture from the past, present, and all over the world. I realized its multidimensionality, from theory and patterns to diversity of complex emotions it can convey to the physical production of music. It is an opportunity for self-driven personal development. But most of all, I recognized that music ensembles model the type of society I wanted to help create: a community of individuals with the common goal to create something magnificent; where collaboration, humility, and confidence are imperative; and, where cacophony and discord are recognized and
They were my heroes, my mentors, and my inspiration. I wanted to be just as fascinating and enthusiastic as they were in my eyes. Soon enough, I knew I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. And so I learned from them, instilling the Montessori principles they taught deep into my personal value system and immersing myself in the ocean of interesting things to explore. It was not until I left that familiar, safe environment that I realized just how much the values and skills I learned—such as empathy and inclusion—were needed in the “real world.”
When I entered the public school system in the ninth grade, I was unprepared to interact with types of people I had rarely encountered before. While most of the people I met were amazing, intelligent, and enthusiastic students like myself, I found others who were disinterested in learning, unengaged, apathetic, and indifferent. Cliques. People who were completely ignored. People with unrealized passions and …show more content…
Music became another universe for me to explore. Music came alive, breathing culture from the past, present, and all over the world. I realized its multidimensionality, from theory and patterns to diversity of complex emotions it can convey to the physical production of music. It is an opportunity for self-driven personal development. But most of all, I recognized that music ensembles model the type of society I wanted to help create: a community of individuals with the common goal to create something magnificent; where collaboration, humility, and confidence are imperative; and, where cacophony and discord are recognized and