
Formal Education in most countries begins at ages 5-6, but it can start sooner depending on the will of the parents on the child. This thread looks at which part of a human's education as being the MOST important:
Pre-School
Primary
Junior Secondary
High School
College or University
Civil or on the Job
For me the primary school education is the most important. It is the building block of the person's educational life, and any roadblocks encountered at this stage could be detrimental to the person's ability to succeed later on. Pre-School is not that important, because I feel it is more of a social development tool than an educational one. By the time the person is in secondary school, they have already been moulded into a certain direction, and by then I believe it is too late.
for me the most important year was first grade. I just moved into the u.s and I learned a lot that year - reading and writing both in Hebrew, because my parents didn't want my legacy left behind, and English. And I did read major books compared to my age then - almost every book of Roald Dahl's and all of the Wizard of Oz series.
Also, I learned a lot in Math - order of numbers and number addition, multiplication and division. Because I was so advanced, I took courses of second grade also, and that might explain why it was the most productive year for me.
I'm not sure if I'm answering this from a completely unbiased perspective, but I'm going to answer it anyway.
I agree with Malexander about primary school being the most important as far as a person's development goes. Not only educationally but socially and emotionally as well.
I don't believe that if a child chooses a bad path in their younger years, it is hopeless for their life of ever taking a different direction. This can go both ways.I know so many people who spent their lives as a goody goody, but when they went into secondary, and even college, they completely messed their lives up. On the contrary, I know people who were complete rebels all throughout elementary school and middle school, and then straightened up in high school. It's definately a situational, individual process.
Back to the topic at hand, though, most children do receive their foundational beliefs about education and themselves at that early age. I can remember my life being touched by my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teachers in such a way that I absolutely loved learning after that. Plus, they instilled pride in me. To have pride in what I do and in myself. They encouraged me to have goals and to be imaginative.
I'm about to give you guys, assuming anybody reads this, more information about me than you probably really want to know.
That's one of the reasons, if not my main reason, for wanting to teach that age. I want to give students that same pride that I was taught and that same love for knowledge and learning that I received from my elementary school teachers.
Students go through so many changes in elementary school that a lot of them are so unsure of themselves. I noticed that a lot this past summer working with different age groups. They don't know who they are or where they want to go. I was so blessed because I had teachers who were dedicated in helping us find our strengths and our weaknesses. They helped us develop our weaknesses so they weren't weaknesses anymore while ensuring that our strengths were growing.
That is what I want to do with the rest of my life. I want to be that extra motherly figure, or for some kids, that only motherly figure that helps them become what I am. I saw my fifth grade teacher in the bank the other day, and when I told her what I was going to school for...I have never seen her smile so big. I want to be in that position. I want to have somebody come up to me years down the road and tell me "You really impacted me."
**clears throat** Well, now that I've given you a novel. Yes. B. I choose B.