Early Childhood Development Essay

Most people think that education comes from school, but school is not the only place you learn. When you are a baby you learn from your parents, family, friends, playmates, and surroundings. You don’t go to school to learn to walk, crawl, or eat. You learn all that from your parents at home. I started my school days with preschool. I went to preschool at Nekcap Head Start. I remember very little. I remember having place mats that symbolized where all your eating essentials go. The racial composition in preschool was all whites, if I am recalling correctly. There were mostly girls in preschool. When I was in preschool, I remember my mom telling me to be nice and respectful. Not that I knew what respectful was. The teachers always told me the same thing as well as sharing with others. I learned to be nice to everybody. I also learned the basics. For grade school, I attended Hiawatha Elementary School. In elementary school, there were probably social classes but they weren’t as noticeable to me then as they are now. The racial composition was pretty much white. There were three blacks and that was it for my class. My teachers tried to steer me to be polite and respectful as well as my parents. I learned to be friends with everybody. For junior high, I attended Hiawatha Middle School. My class consisted of the same kids from middle school. Social classes in junior high were noticeable. Upper class students normally stuck together as well as the other social classes. I remember taking a home economics class. In that class you cooked, sewed, took home computerized babies, and learned to do laundry. Basically learned all the roles you will have to do when you are an adult. For high school, I attend Hiawatha High School. My class still consists of the same students from elementary and middle school. Social classes are very noticeable. Upper class tends to be more snobby and lower class tends to be the nicer ones that no one really talks to. I mostly talk to middle class students. However, I still talk to upper class and lower class students. There are more classes that steer me to the profession I want to go into. I have taken Child Development, Human and Growth Development, Nutrition and Wellness, and Sociology. All of these classes prepare me for â€Å"real life† in some way or another. My freshman year I didn’t really care about school. Sophomore year either. My current year in school, Junior, I am more focused and actually care about my grades, attitude, and attendance. I have learned not to believe or trust anybody but myself. In conclusion, all grades you attend in school teach you respect. There is a â€Å"hidden curriculum in every school. You also learn from your own life experiences. You learn who to trust and who not to. Racial composition is the same throughout all my grades of school. You can’t really take classes that put you on track for college in middle school.