'passionate and dedicated teachers' - Bowdoin Supplement

My Response:

For a student that is coming from a school system that is slowly but surely lowering the standards for their students, intellectual engagement has become extremely important to me. I have been fortunate enough to have passionate and dedicated teachers that do not agree with the way things are being run in our public education system and have refused to accept work of a lower quality. Many of my teacher have said something along the lines of "I've been teaching it this way for the past ten years and the expectations I have for my students have, and will always be the same." I do not believe in the ideology that the majority of the Board of Education members seem to have. They believe that since times are changing, then the quality of work must be changing as well and, in the best interest of the students, they must change the unrealistic expectations they have of their students. I find that incredible. I find it baffling that they seem to be holding the teachers responsible for students failures. Many of these teachers have been nothing but supportive and their priority is giving their students a proper education so that they are college ready. It's ironic that in the Mission Statement for Bridgeport Public Schools, it says that their mission is "to graduate all students 'college ready' and prepared to succeed in life," because they appear to doing the polar opposite of that. I hope that if I do get accepted into Bowdoin, I will be able to remain surrounded by teachers and faculty that care and I hope to stay in an intellectually stimulating environment. Then with the education received at Bowdoin, I would be able to return to the city I'm from and make some changes for the future generations.