The Atmosphere of a Scholar by Evelyn

The Atmosphere of a Scholar by Evelyn - October 2014 Scholarship Essay

How can anyone learn without feeling safe? Having anxiety just raising their hands is not a safe environment. Many children go to school everyday without participating in class in fear of any potential consequences. Unfortunately, this is the typical problem for many educational institutions. Kids aren't asking questions. They are not being engulfed with knowledge. They are hiding behind an invisible shield that leads them to deprioritize their education.

Luckily, I ended up in a small liberal arts charter where the number one mission is that every student feel safe no matter what color, religion, or sexual orientation. Even in class, we're taught in many different ways about discrimination and how to fight against it. Often people transfer here because there were bullied at their last institution and did not feel safe nor appreciated. A community that roots for all humankind makes students conscious of their own actions and how it would affect others. It helps others learn and understand others without judgement. People feel more open to participate in class and feel more involved with the information they are taking in.

Students are encouraged to share their feelings with their teachers, making it a comfortable, tight-nit community. Like other typical schools, we have a homeroom. This time is used to speak with our teacher one on one, but also bond with others from different grades. A place where a student can honestly talk to their teaches students how to clearly converse and ask teachers about their questions and more importantly, how to work through their own situations.

Also, with feeling safe, the students are more open to create and our arts department is multi-faceted with many different outlets of creativity. Even our regular curriculum requires students to think outside of the box. A creative lifestyle leads me to believe that every single subject that one could learn about has creativity. Everything from mathematics to concert flute has its own flavor.

An environment that promotes a good atmosphere with ingenuity is where I think the peak of education is found. As much as silent classrooms might relaxing, those aren't going to best way to teach students. Creating an atmosphere of no anxiety and innovative thinking really makes my ideal learning environment.