Anthony Licata

Professor Williams

English 111

3 October, 2023

Education Narrative final

Draft

My Educational Journey goes very far back and it is definitely full of many

positives and negatives. Education is very important because most people have received

education in a way. You need education to go to college and in some cases get a job. I

know if it wasn't for my education my life would be a lot different in many ways. I

wouldn't be able to speak as clearly as I do, I couldn't mostly do math, and I probably

wouldn't be able to write as well as I am able to now. As Benjamin Franklin once

basically said, “An investment in knowledge pays almost the best interest.” What this

quote means is that investing your time into learning and getting smarter is more

important and rewarding rather than spending time and money on other things. I would

value my education over most things because in the long run, a good education could get

you very far in life.

My journey in education started when I was in kindergarten. My teachers name

was Ms. Allen, to this day she is one of the nicest teachers/people I have ever met, she

really helped me excel in learning by teaching me my abcs and to count as high as 100.

She always told us to be nice to everyone no matter how you may feel about someone.

Hearing this as a child didn't mean much but now I can finally understand why she might
have said this. I think in kindergarten I can generally say I grew not only as a student but

also as a person. The beginning of middle school was hard because I basically was kind

of just getting the hang of having more than one teacher and having to use my locker

before the class began. I always had to rush to class so I wouldn't be late. In middle

school, my 6th-grade math teacher was not nearly as helpful or nice as my other teachers.

She wasn't very good at explaining the subject. She would kind of just give us

assignments and homework and barely show us how to do it. As a visual learner, this

wasn't very helpful. If I would ask her a question, instead of helping me she would

usually just give me an attitude instead of working out the problem with me. If you were

to blurt out the answer and get it wrong she would mostly get mad and yell at you. She

was one of those teachers who would try to kind of put you down and tell you to give up.

Overall I think she was one of the worst, meanest teachers I have ever had, or so they

thought. In 7th grade, I just moved to North Carolina and it was my first year at a new

school. It kind of was hard for me to fit in and find new friends for the first couple of

weeks. I feel like I wasn't doing good in school at this time because rather than doing

schoolwork I was trying to make new friends.

Before I moved to Lincoln Charter I didn't really have a good English teacher to

help me write. My English teacher in 7th year was very nice and would always help me

with anything I needed, which is quite helpful. I remember whenever I was confused or

got something wrong instead of bashing me for it she would nicely help me, look it over

and explain it to me in generally simpler terms. She has also for all intents and purposes

helped me excel as a student. The thing about her was at some points we would kind of

have to be serious but we could also have fun and do cool activities. I can definitely say
in my 7th grade year I essentially think this for all intents and purposes is one of the

reasons I grew tremendously as a writer. 8th grade was my covid year so it was kind of

hard to adapt to doing work on only your Chromebook. I would sit inside playing video

games not being productive. It definitely was hard for me because I was never good at

focusing and doing my schoolwork online. Quarantine was overall very hard for me

because I lacked a work ethic. My 8th grade math teacher Mr. Hilburn really helped me.

Even though I wasn't in school he always offered to go on a Zoom call and help me with

my math homework. He was very good at teaching whatever kind of math we were

doing. Even though I was online during this time period I was still able to get my work

done and maintain a good grade in math. Mr. Hilburn was very nice and it seemed like he

really wanted everyone in his class to succeed. Even though he was very nice he really

was still strict with his grading in a subtle way. I think this really had a positive impact on

me because it forced me to work harder and put more work in to get a better grade. The

best thing about Mr. Hilburn was he would ask me to go on Zoom calls to see how I was

doing not only in school but also just how my life going in general. Mr. Hilburn is not

only one of the nicest teachers I've ever had but he's also just as good of a person.

I think what this essay says is that it's easy to have teachers/people who have

negative or positive impacts on your life, which specifically is fairly significant. No

matter what, you have to keep going on with school because even if you have a bad

teacher next year you could have the sort of the best teacher you've ever had. Sometimes

a bad teacher could be the reason you fail a class or drop out in a. A good teacher could

be the main reason you start trying in school and continuing sort of your educational

journey all the way through college or wherever else you go. I think it goes to show that
education is not only important in high school but also just your life in general in a big

way.