Personal Narrative: What I Learned In Higher Education

There are very few skills in life that I have acquired without education. My heart beats, my lungs breathe and I have biological instincts that drive me to eat and sleep in order for my life to continue. Everything else I know and experience in this world is a result of education

In my earliest years I learned many lessons from my parents. Some were taught intentionally and with great repetition such as manners, good hygiene and study habits and of course the golden rule. Other lessons that were taught by my parents ran as an undercurrent throughout my childhood as my Mom modeled for me how to be a woman, daughter and mother. These subconscious lessons had a tremendous impact on shaping my personality and greatly informed the person I am today.

Learning to read is often overlooked in its importance in higher education, but it is this fundamental skill that opens the doors to all others. With the ability to read I have the option to learn anything I desire, no longer is there a valid excuse for being uninformed.

The passion and enjoyment my parents and teachers instilled in me for reading was even more valuable to me than the basic necessary skill of reading. Reading equips me with the ability to put myself in another character’s shoes and see the world from their point of view. Reading enables me to visit faraway places in space and time in my imagination that I would have no means of traveling to otherwise. Reading unlocks endless possibilities for all who seek to

But there is another essential component that elevates the learner from Piaget’s concrete operational thought to the formal operational stage. That last piece is critical thinking. In the concrete operational stage thinking becomes logical and many adults today do not progress past this stage. In the formal operational stage logic increases and is accompanied by the ability to use deductive reasoning and think abstractly.

In my honors and AP high school classes, as well as my college classes, my professors have pushed me to do more than learn and regurgitate facts. The ability to think critically and analyze gives me the tools to look at a situation and come up with innovative out of the box solutions. My Sociology professor in particular this semester has given us wonderful essay prompts to enable me to not only demonstrate my understanding of the material, but to also take it a step further and apply my own solutions to sociological