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In I just want to be average by Mike Rose, it is about how Mike Rose recalls his educational experience in a vocational school. A vocational school is a school full of bottom level classes. To be placed in a vocational school, students have to have a low score in their placement test. Rose accidently got placed in the vocational school, because his test got mixed up with another student named Rose. After realizing Rose accidently got placed in, he continued to still stay in the vocational school. Throughout the story Rose talks about each student he meets. He makes them seem like they are not just uneducated kids with discipline issues. Rose identifies a specific trait that stands them out from one another, despite them being lower leveled students; they are something more than that to him. Also, he describes how the teachers behave. The teachers are insensible and use violence to punish and get through to the students. Most of the teachers he describes show lack of control in the class, not only that, but they are not prepared for lesson plans; all but one teacher, Jack Macfarland. Mike Rose stumbles on a new teacher, Jack Macfarland. Mr. Macfarland was different from the other teachers. Mr. Macfarland was engaging in the classroom. He seemed to care about his students. He pushed his students …show more content…
My participation in class would help me achieve these goals. By participating in class and keeping up with all my work I get closer on getting my schooling done. My participation at staying at work, as well as being a full time student, will allow me to reach my goals of maintaining school and work. Not only will my participation help me reach my goals, but also having my professors and family guide me through challenges. Having a support system and help from my fellow class mates will reach me to the road of
He professes: “We set out to determine what a child knows in order to tailor instruction, but we frequently slot rather than shape, categorize rather than foster. And the poorer the kids are- the less power their parents have- the more likely are their chances of being, as Lillian put it, hurt about their intelligence.” This portion of the passage really stuck out to me for many reasons. In this part of the passage I am brought back to the beginning of the book when Rose, himself, was put on the remedial track because his file was misplaced with another individuals file; Rose’s parents had minimal education themselves, didn’t know what to say or do in the situation. If the test would have been used to tailor and shape, the teachers would have known that he wasn’t supposed to be on the vocational track. Also, this reminded me of the ACT and SAT testing, a common standardized test that is used for college acceptance. The American education system relies on the test to show the intelligence of a person when all the test accomplishes is how well a person can
I had read an essay called, “I Just Wanna Be Average” by Mike Rose. The essay was about Rose revisiting his high school experience. He explains his adventure through school reflecting on his education, learning environment, & behaviors of students/teachers. Also he talks about the motivation or lack thereof in him and his fellow peers reflecting on them just wanting to be average.
We live in a society where we are surrounded by people telling us that school/education and being educated is the only way to succeed. However, the school system is not up to the standards we want it to uphold. There are three issues we discuss the most which are the government, the student, and the teacher. In John Taylor Gatto 's essay “Against School”, we see the inside perspective of the educational system from the view of a teacher. In “I Just Wanna Be Average”, an essay written by Mike Rose, we hear a student 's experience of being in a vocational class in the lower level class in the educational system when he was supposed to be in the higher class.
In the article, “Blue-Collar Brilliance” by Mike Rose, he begins with an anecdote of his mother working her blue-collar job at a diner as a waitress. Rose vividly describes her common day that is packed with a constant array of tedious tasks she has to accomplish to make her living. The authors goal appears to be making the reader appreciate the hard work of blue-collar workers because society places a stereotype on them as being less intelligent than someone with more schooling or even a white-collar job: “Our cultural iconography promotes the muscled arm, sleeve rolled tight against biceps, but no brightness behind the eye, no inmate that links hand and brain” (282). I agree with Rose’s conclusion that if we continue to place a stigma on
putting Rose in vocational classes where he is forced to learn things at a slower pace. The theme
In “I Just Wanna Be Average”, Mike Rose recounts his experiences in vocational program in high school, which known as bottom level. When he was a freshman, he accidently was placed in these classes but he decided to stay. Rose goes into details describing some of his teachers and classmates. Certain teachers he introduced were not enthusiastic about their jobs and they don’t believe their students can make good achievements, and sometime they even treat students violently, which also lead some students of the vocational program to slack off and not care about studying. Rose also focused on some of his classmates, who were seen as troublemakers. He found out that they actually were not always like fighting, being lazy and loafing, and they had some special skills showed their true personalities. There was one boy that very stuck out to Rose was Ken Harvey, who was asked by teacher to give an opinion of working hard to make achievements, stated that “ I just wanna be average” (Rose 335). I was pretty impressive about this quote because that I think being average might like some of students calm down and feel not so stressful to survive in educational system. Later in Rose’s life, he eventually moved out of vocational program and back to typical school system. At this time, his father passed away, which is not so relevant with the main plot. Later, Mr. MacFarland came into Rose’s life as his English teacher in senior year. Rose looked up Mr. MacFarland deeply because he sincerely cared of his students, told the importance of working hard to them and even encourage Rose to pursue further education in college. I can tell that Mr. MacFarland left positive impacts on Rose’s whole life, and helped him found his real potential.
When Clark was observing at a high school he was talking to a teacher who was making substitute lesson plans and she was saying that in her morning class there are three or so “good” students and in her afternoon class is filled with the “average” students. She either never considered or stopped caring about what kind of background these students came from. Some youth try to rise to the top quickly while others learn to cope with abandonment. Whether an adolescent is on top or not they will be recognized for what they do. However, underneath the surface, even with those who are on top, have a fear that they will be found out and will lose everything. A senior male told Clark “I have to get the grades and play sports. I have nothing else”. Institutions no longer have their primary focus on the youth’s welfare and development, instead they have focused on the institutional competitiveness.
He directly challenges his students to succeed, and better their lives by avoiding routes that land them in failing statistics. He contends that his students are not dumb, but rather that they just do not know anything. Subliminally, his message is of perseverance by not giving up on troublesome students, and of the beauty in teaching, which is his true passion. Every student in Jamie’s class agrees to pursue higher expectations than the school has set for them. They enroll in summer school, evening classes, and even agree to learn calculus outside of normal school hours.
Although this system is rigid, it can be manipulated enough to allow some movement if an individual will put in the time and effort it takes to learn how to do this. This movement cannot happen, however, if the person does not realize that this system is not absolute. When an individual is made to believe that they belong somewhere they will often not try to change that. Mike Ross wrote an article entitled “I Just Wanna Be Average” in which he describes his experiences at a vocational school and it’s effects on his motivation and view of himself. In this article, he states that a “student will float to the mark you set” (Ross 185). At this vocational school, he was expected to do poorly because it was decided that he was not intelligent enough to handle regular classes. Because this viewpoint surrounded him, he began to view himself as someone who was less than the average person. He would produce mediocre work and put in as little effort as possible while still maintaining a passing grade. When everyone around an individual believes that they can only be what the social system says they are, it makes it hard for them to imagine that they can be something different. This results in that individual only amounting to what is expected out of them, creating the illusion that these social structures are not only absolute but the only description of a person that is needed in order to assess their value. This can be perpetuated by rumors that are spread about them, making them fall lower in the hierarchy. Then if they try to fight back these rumors will only escalate, which creates a vicious cycle in which many people cannot escape. To break out of this cycle, an individual must realize their self-value and that they cannot be defined by a social order in which they are placed in by individuals who have
He himself had gone through difficulties in the American educational system like the students he mentioned in his book. He talks about the struggles that he had gone through as someone who was not American. When Mike Rose was a child, he had problems with math and grammar and was not very fond of it. Then, when he was put into a remedial class because of a mix up, he experienced how the American educational system treated students in remedial classes. After they corrected the mistake, it was too late to go back and learn what he should have been learning. When he got to high school, one of his teachers, Jack MacFarland became a role model for him. MacFarland got him to be interested in reading and writing and later on even helped him get into a university. In the book, Lives on the Boundary, Rose basically writes about his experience with the American educational system. Along with his own experience are stories about the students he had come across at the University he was working at. Rose accomplishes to engage his audience into the reading by telling his own story and going back and forth between him and his students. In this short book, Rose’s writing style is more like an autobiography which reflects the theme “hope” by using his students’ and his own experiences and outcomes to say that there is hope for people who have obstacles in their way.
Mike Rose wrote “Blue Collar Brilliance” to showcase the underlying and previously unheard of intelligence of blue-collar workers that is often ignored by scholars because such workers are not commonly seen as conventionally intelligent. Rose challenges the idea that intelligence is solely based on the amount of schooling completed, and instead explains that blue-collar jobs require more intelligence than most would think. Using personal examples and various comparisons, Rose describes the true value of working blue-collar jobs. The arguments presented in the essay parallel the saying “It’s more than meets the eye.”
He taught to students and faculty of the school to not be conformist with what they have and that they can go beyond what the statistics say. The statistics were depressing: only 50% finished the high
College is the main goal of my life. It is a life dream to go to college to get a degree and get a successful job. Everything that I have done until this point is to get to college. During my senior year I plan to apply to many colleges and to take the SAT's to get into college. My GPA and SAT scores will be crucial for me to get into college. With college I will further my business career, making more successful in the field I enjoy doing.
Mike Rose was raised in a family that did not place value on education. His mother dropped out of school in seventh grade and he never figured out if his father got through second grade. Yet, he considers his parents to be perfectly well educated. They did not pick up their education in s...
James Hilton’s novel Goodbye, Mr. Chips is the story of an English schoolmaster who dedicated his entire adult life teaching young boys. He was a somewhat shy person. Nevertheless he was a competent school teacher, professional and attractive in many different ways. Although his first teaching experience was not successful, he was determined to become a good schoolmaster. After coming to Brookfield, he began to warm up to his students. But more important he brought discipline to his school which is the requirement for good teaching—something he did not achieve while teaching at Melbery.