The future of learning-What would I change.

I had a horrible experience when I was in jr. high school. I was struggling. My mother was very ill and my second home was the University hospital. I was one of her primary care givers. I was also only 14 years old and learning to figure out where I fit in this big world. I went to school often very exhausted because my home life was incredibly stressful and emotional. I went to school and felt frustrated and incredible alone, because nothing made sense. My first class was math. Many times I would go to class and fall asleep because I rarely slept well at home, so my teacher assumed I was a lazy teenager. I failed most of my math tests, so the "obvious" choice, was putting me in a resource class. I ended up with the same teacher who came to the conclusion that I was unable to learn and told me that I should find a job that did not require a college education, nor one that required me to do math, because I was one of those special kids that could not learn like the rest...She gave up and then I gave up on myself. I fell into a deep depression. I did not want to go to school, and I was beyond intimidated of my math teacher. My dad thought I was making this all up until he met with her during a parent teacher conference. He tried to call to find some help for me, but he too felt overwhelmed with the school system. This feeling of insecurity carried on through all my classes through high school. I did better in my understanding, but still had that thought in the back of my mind, I would never succeed as a student.

It took me 17 years until I finally decided to go to college. My saving grace was the Trio program. It wasn't until that program and Mace Jacobson, did I realize I was very capable. Her dedication and unconditional determination that I had what it took to be successful gave me the drive I needed to keep going with this journey. I still struggle with math, and writing, but slowly I learned the skills and gained the confidence to realize, yes, I learn differently, but I'm not stupid, and I have an incredible potential. I'm not the greatest writer, I'm not the greatest at academics, but I am an amazing person that can mentor and help others achieve their future goals.

My plan for would be to start with the students confidence. Building someones confidence and understanding how they learn could offer educators a deeper understanding what works best for the student, instead of the student adjusting their learning styles to the way people teach. We talked about this in class. Offering more programs such as Trio and upward bound, would be fantastic to implement in elementary schools and middle school to start creating learners, and kids who can create a good foundation for wanting to learn instead of fearing they are unable to because of learning differences. I say learning differences instead of disabilities because the word disabled to me is so detrimental for a young learner..those labels only hinder a learners progression.