Educators were those who instilled a desire within me to learn. This is not an easy task and even at a young age, i appreciated this more than other things from my teachers. I'm trying to decide whether it was a fear of failing or an actual desire to be smarter that was my main motivation as a young learner.  Perhaps it was both.  Before I realized this truth and knew it as such, my very first teachers were my parents. My first school was my home.  Home life to me was what was real and school was this other thing- this pretend place i had to go to, get through, and someday, I would be gone from.  I loved learning new things but did not enjoy the act of sitting in class for eight hours a day.I believe school is not for the right place for everyone but I also believe it is such an important part of life and growing as a person.  It wasn't until after high school that i started getting into the whole school thing.  College prepared me to excel in my pursuit of knowledge within a subject that I loved.  When I was dictating my class schedule, paying for it on my own, learning what I wanted to learn, and studying what interested me, then my education became my own-something that I felt I was in charge of and belonged to me personally.  Because of these emotions, I felt like a better student because I knew how hard I was trying to succeed.  My college years helped me to appreciate all the 'hard teachers' that I had in high school because I realized they helped to prepare me for 'the real world'. I have come to realize that there is so much more to the term, the definition, and the reality of education itself than preparation, although i believe that has a part to play. Interaction and socialization (from birth on) are also important factors into how one learns and grows. John Dewey's article expressed such emphasis on school as a social institution which I can agree with. School becomes a home away from home, so to speak.  It is where we form friendships and learn how to work with others that are so different from ourselves with such different backgrounds- it helps to gain perspective and think outside of our individual situations.  I will strive, as a teacher, to help students learn to accept and appreciate others' differences and hopefully through this hope, guide them in a way to trust themselves and take ownership of all they want out of their education.