Landry 1

Sara Landry
Mrs. Coco
English 1001, Section 64
3 December 2015
1. My audience is kids in grades seventh-twelfth. I hope that through my essay, they grasp
the idea that what your parents and teachers teach you is important, but it is what you do
with it that is the most important. I hope that they see the importance of learning and how
your surroundings influence your values and beliefs.
Preface
Following the teacher comment draft, I realized that I had something unique to my
learning which was the fact that my parents read the Bible to me as a child. I decided that I
wanted to focus on this idea and discuss in further detail how that helped me with understanding
Paradise Lost. I changed my entire paper. I hope in this one, I do not sound as bland and just
describing my upbringing. I added descriptions to show my frustration or uneasiness about the
topic instead of just saying I didnt enjoy it. While my paper still has a focus on my family in the
background, I bring to light the impact religion had on my learning.
I feel like switching the focus of my paper allowed me to further develop my paper. I was
able to add details describing my feelings while in class. In my previous papers, I was just saying
how my parents influenced my education, but with this angle, I was able to discuss how it helped
me years later.
I think my paper might be short. I think I could have elaborated more on some ideas, but I
didnt want it to sound repetitive. I was just trying to think of new ways of how it affected me,
but I couldnt find the right wording. I also am concerned that it is simple. Maybe I could have
discussed the time when I wasnt focusing too much on religion and then show how I had to go
back and research for my paper.
Religions Impact on My Learning
1
Through my journey of discovering how education became important to me, I began with
the belief that my family had the most influence on my attitude towards school. However, as I
thought about how they made such a positive influence on me, I realized that their choices of
how I began my education and their efforts to assist me through my learning was what really
stuck with me. They did not just let me go to school and let that be my only exposure to

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education, they continued to teach me outside of school. And what they taught me outside of the
classroom is what made me excel in it.
2
My parents decided to place my siblings and me into Catholic school. I began my
educational journey at Visitation of Our Lady. It began as any other school would, learning about
nursey rhymes, colors, and numbers. But, as I made my way through the upper level courses, I
noticed that although I still learned about the basic subjects, I also was learning about religion,
and religion seemed to be the strong focus point for my classes. I knew about Jesus from church,
but I realized that my teachers were spending hours just looking at the Bible, and the messages
God wrote for us. During elementary school, I did not really understand the complexity of what I
was being taught, and how I would ever use this in my learning.
3
Church was always a big part of my life. Not only was it required to go every week
during school, it was something my family did together every Sunday. My parents were the first
ones to introduce me to religion, but my school taught me more in-depth about the Bible. When I
was younger, my parents would read my siblings and I the Bible rather than fairy tales, during
lent. This gave us more exposure to Jesus and a greater sense of his message in the Bible. I
would get so annoyed. I knew bedtime was coming so I would refuse to get out of the bathtub
and would request for ten more minutes to play with my toys just to give me more time before I
would have to listen to my parents read words I could not understand. They would always try to
read us versus that would make us appreciate our lives and to always treat others with respect.
One of my favorites, that I remember, is from Philippians 2:3 and it says Do nothing out of
selfish ambition or vein conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. I did not

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know it then, but reading all of those versus and becoming familiar with the Bible has helped me
become a better student and has also benefited me when I began discussing Paradise Lost in my
senior English class.
4
My English four teacher was very adamant about reading, analyzing, and writing on a
specific text. I found most of the novels or short stories easy and enjoyable to discuss. Then a
friend in the class before mine said the next topic was extremely difficult not only to understand,
but also to interpret. I went in to class thinking the absolute worst. I was already scared to
disappoint my teacher and now that I may not even be able to understand what we were
discussing had me very anxious. Then I walked in and saw Paradise Lost written on the board. I
have never heard of that before, but I was kind of intrigued by the title. How could paradise be
lost? And what was the paradise for the author? Then my teacher said that we were about to read
an excerpt of an epic poem depicting Satans story after he fell from Heaven. Once she said this,
I understood immediately what she was talking about. But I was confused as to how. I went from
being extremely anxious to suddenly relax. I began racking my brain about how I knew so much
about this already. But then I remembered that my parents read versus to me about Satan, and I
was taught on this topic throughout my elementary education. I remembered Revelations 12:9
reading, And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and
Satan, who deceived the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were
thrown down with him. This is exactly how Paradise Lost starts and I was ready to dive head
first into this assignment because I had the background knowledge to succeed on this project.
5

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A lot of people in my class were able to understand Paradise Lost at the surface level.
Most knew that the devil was the serpent who tempted Eve to taste the apple from the Forbidden
Tree. However, my teacher wanted us to go further than just the surface level. She wanted us to
look at what Satan could represent today? And how the author conveys a specific message. My
class had to write a paper on the topic, but I found myself having to do research for my paper. I
thought I knew, or remembered, everything that I needed for this assignment, but I found myself
having to research the exact wording of verses that I wanted to use and I even found myself
relearning the information because I forgot. While I was reading, I began to remember what I
was told it meant, but now I began to look at it in my own perspective. I took what my parents
taught me and made my own opinions and beliefs off of that. And that is what learning is. Taking
something that you were taught and making it your own. You have to be able to use the
information you learn and not just memorize it, but also be able to apply it. The lessons you
learn, in school or at home, may not seem important to you at that time, but in the future, you
will take what you have learned and use it.