My education experience started out by going to Maple Tree preschool. This was a private school inside of a church in my hometown of Grandville, MI. I think that this experience, although I was very young, began to shape my social mobility. This preschool was very hands on and the class sizes were very small so all of the students had a lot of one-on-one time with the teachers. These years of life 2-6 are very important because this is the time where language and other social skills start to develop and by being fortunate enough to be in an environment where these skills and traits could positively grow. This preschool experience set me up a good foundation for the rest of my life a foundation that many people weren’t able to have as many good private preschools are costly and many public preschools have large class sizes, meaning less opportunities and resources for hands on activities in class.
This early experience indirectly had positive effects on my social mobility as I grew up. Moving on to my middle childhood, I was homeschooled for a few years and then attended South Elementary, which was walking distance from my home. All the Elementary Schools in Grandville were known for being good and properly funded so many people not living the Grandville choose school of choice at Grandville. South Elementary was specifically known for having very good teaching staff, which I experienced first-hand. During my time I had many teachers who I created personal relationships as they made the classroom feel more like a family than strictly a teacher-student dynamic. Just like preschool, although this was a public school, my school was properly funded compared to some other public schools in the county and in a very safe neighborhood where I never had to worry about anything bad happening while I was at school.
This was a privilege that as I grew up I became to realize that not everyone was fortunate enough to have. This only further my social mobility as I was in an environment where my education could thrive. By my late elementary years as I began to build real-world skills such as writing a check or how to save money in the bank which contributed to my social mobility for sure. I continued my education at Grandville High School.
Although Grandville High School had some issues of it’s own, as it was in a conservative area of Michigan where people weren’t always called out for their racist, sexist and homophobic actions and remarks, it was still a very well-funded school with plenty of extracurriculars and opportunities. My favorite thing about the school was the involvement of the staff, I almost never had a “bad” teacher at my time at Grandville. An example of how this experience grew my social mobility was through teachers being willing to write letters of reference for me when applying for college, jobs and scholarships.
I had multiple teachers at Grandville be more than willing to write letters of reference and speak positively on my behalf, which allowed me access into experiences that I wouldn’t have access to otherwise. Many public-school teachers are extremely overworked and living paycheck to paycheck so if I grew up in a different school district I may have not had teachers who were willing to help me out of their own time. In conclusion many of my experiences prior to college had impacts on my social mobility and I wouldn’t be at college without them.
