Reflection on Access to Education

I found this to be a very hard essay to write. There are so many different ways to define and interpret the word “access.” I started out by trying to look up the word access in a dictionary and I was a bit intrigued by some of the definitions I did not know were associated with access. For example, I found that in the Webster’s Dictionary, access is defined by an increase or growth. This definition really resonated with me as I wrote my paper because I defined access to education as being something I have acquired through my parents. The access they have given me has increased and grown because we are of different generations and also because I was raised in a different environment than they were. Access, in my opinion, is something that you cannot control. Although, my access differs from my parents it still affects my own. I believe that ones parents background can affect their children’s access to education based on their race and socioeconomic status as children. But access to education can be so much more than that. Access to education can be based off of ones experiences, abilities, common sense, realizations, communities, and so much more. So my question is- what is the difference between access to formal education and access to informal education? How do we get access to life experiences and education we do not acquire in school? Is it through experiences in our communities? Nurturing from our parents? Either way, I think that there are multiple ways to view access to education; whether it be through informal or formal education.