On average, our corps members stay in the classroom for eight years. But again, given the systemic nature of educational inequity, we know it is vital that some of our alumni take their experience outside the classroom.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I am an Air Force brat who grew up at various Air Force bases. I changed six schools in about five years and got stability for the first time when I was sent to a boarding school, Rishi Valley. I lived outside of a cantonment-style living and was among an eclectic mix of kids and got exposed to books and other things.
I taught for 17 years in an inner city comprehensive schools.
When you're a kid, your first five or six years, you converge all the time. School is about training that out of you, especially universities.
My favorite college experience was probably leaving college.
Our approach to education has remained largely unchanged since the Renaissance: From middle school through college, most teaching is done by an instructor lecturing to a room full of students, only some of them paying attention.
The obsessive focus on a college degree has served neither taxpayers nor students well. Only 35 percent of students starting a four-year degree program will graduate within four years, and less than 60 percent will graduate within six years. Students who haven't graduated within six years probably never will.
When I enrolled in college at age 19, I had a total of eight years of formal classroom education. As a result, I was not comfortable with formal lectures and receiving regular homework assignments.
When I retired from active duty, I still felt that I owed something to my community. That's why I pursued education... I still miss the classroom and recall those days fondly.
I never went to class. That the university graduated me at all is an indictment of our educational system.
I studied in eight schools and did not get to be in a school for more than two years, as I was always requested to get out, even though I was not thrown out ever.