Empowerment Through Education In I Just Wanna Be Average By Mike Rose

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Education is the essential cog to achieving the American Dream. The cultural myth of the empowerment through education says that because “everyone is created equal”, privileged birth not withstanding, one has the opportunity to learn and better yourself in order to achieve upward mobility. Through hard work and perseverance, not luck, can one achieve their dreams. Empowerment through education can be signified by the ability to think critically, communicate effectively and literacy. “I Just Wanna Be Average” by Mike Rose illustrates numerous flaws in the education system that discredits the cultural myth of empowerment through education that is essential to achieving the American Dream. Mike Rose’s experience in the education system showed that not all schooling is equal. Mike Rose says that the students were “brought together by geography and parental desire” (152). Parents believed that if they were to bring their children to a private school away from public schools that they would receive a better education based on the assumption that private schools provide a more advanced curriculum and independence in learning. This is proven to be false because students are funneled into different educational tracks, the Vocational education and college prep groups, from the start. Rose explains …show more content…

Between the teachers ability to instruct and the administrators that opt to divide the educations that the students receive once they arrive to high school, more often than not, the students will not be able to attain the level of education they need to succeed. Students must receive the same “equal” and first-rate education in order to validate the level of fairness associated with the American Dream. Without these two notions the cultural myth of empowerment through educations is inaccurate and the American Dream will be

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