More handpicked essays just for you.
Effects of pressures on students to get good grades
The giver critical analysis
Literary analysis on the giver
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
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.
What is being average really though? There is no such thing as average when everyone is different in their own way, shape, or form. I believe the authors meaning of average in this story was that they wanted to be lost souls. Which means they have no motivation to make a difference or change in this world of ours. Rose stats that an impact a teacher and his/her strategies
…show more content…
This style is most effective with males and might not do so well with females because they might have a harder time trying to fill out a high school boy’s shoes. In the beginning the author talked about his background of his life. He tells the audience that he is a professor and has won multiple awards for teaching, so people can retain the lessons taught in the story and respect what the author has to say in the essay. Which plays on an ethos appeal, which is giving the audience credibility and trust in his piece. On the bottom of page 158, the beginning of the actual story, the author talks about some of the people on the buses in his town. He describes them as veterans and talks about the teenager’s on the bus had appeared as punks/pimps. This brings a perspective of a hood aspect to the story. Last paragraph on 158 leading onto 159, Rose was placed in a lower level class because the school had mistaken his name for another kid named Rose. This was one of the key first examples of a failed school …show more content…
This plummet’s Rose even further into a slump and deters him from his goals and makes him lose ambition or what ambition he did have. The story takes a big turn for the better on 165, Rose meets the teacher that saves him and turns his live around Jack Macfarland. This teacher unlike any other teacher he has had in vocational education. Macfarland follows a different set of principles. The teacher likes to encouraging his student instead of disciplining them and always strives for them to be better. On page 167, Macfarland even helps Rose get into college. This brought Rose back from the dark side because the grades in the last three years of high school didn’t reflect well for him. Macfarland helped him anyways and saw the potential Rose had and what he could to and that reflects on what Rose is doing today. This emotional appeal is different in tone, but similar in style to the story
He first describes the loneliness students feel upon arriving at college, and that as they try to find themselves, they all often lose themselves because they are bombarded with ideas that are so foreign to them. He introduces his audience to Andrea, a bright young girl out of high school who, despite hours of memorizing in her textbook, could not obtain a passing grade on her Chemistry mid-term. How is this possible if she spent so much time studying? Rose explains that she failed because in college, and in this course in particular, it is not enough for a student to know the material, but rather, to be able to apply it to a variety of problems. Yet the problem Andrea faces is that she was never taught this in high school.
A Rose for Emily Life is fickle and most people will be a victim of circumstance and the times. Some people choose not to let circumstance rule them and, as they say, “time waits for no man”. Faulkner’s Emily did not have the individual confidence, or maybe self-esteem and self-worth, to believe that she could stand alone and succeed at life especially in the face of changing times. She had always been ruled by, and depended on, men to protect, defend and act for her. From her Father, through the manservant Tobe, to Homer Barron, all her life was dependent on men.
In chapter one we are introduced to our narrator, Ponyboy. Ponyboy is raised by his two older brothers Darry and Soda. They’re all apart of a gang called the “greasers” which is joined by Dally, Johnny, Two-bit, and Steve. There is another group called “ socs” which stands for socials, and everyone in that group is very wealthy. One day Ponyboy got jumped by a socs group, but luckily Darry was there to help before anything too serious happened. The first element of literature is characterization. Ponyboy is a keen observer, trying to make sense of the complexities of those around him. At the beginning of the story, he stops and spends several pages giving us brief character description on Steve, Two-Bit, Dally, and Johnny. This is also known as direct characterization. He tells us that Steve is "cocky and smart" ( Hinton 9). Two-Bit can 't stop joking around and goes to school for "kicks" (Hinton 10) rather than to learn. Dallas, he says, is "tougher, colder, meaner" ( Hinton 10) than the rest of them.
I remember Ali saying I just want to be average and it struck a chord within me. Years later, reading Mike Rose’s article made me remember what Ali said and how true it was that all of us, living in different times, just wanted to be average. Walking to geometry class during my sophomore year in high school was definitely a pain. Our new mathematics teacher, Mr. Lee tried teaching us the basics of geometry and pushed us to do well. With daily quizzes and exams, I, along with many other students, felt the pressure increase to do well. With each passing day, Ali and I felt ourselves gasping and drowning deeper and deeper into the hole of despair. Looking at the test scores, I was guaranteed to retake the class the next semester with Ali. Even though my school was hailed as a very good school, I felt like it was not very welcoming. Going back home on the bus, I would hear many other students talk about how they got that A or how that other teacher helped them get a better grade. Maybe, it was just the environment but Ali and I felt that we were being cheated on by the education system. We had both failed the Mr. Lee’s class and had to take another semester of Geometry to our horror and mutual
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
worth all the hard work. In the essay, ‘’I Just Want to be Average’’ By Mike Rose, Rose
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.
"Ms. McMulkin, this is Alex. That essay--- how long can it be?" "Why, uh, not less than 600 words." He sounded a little surprised. I'd forgotten it was late at night. "Can it be longer?" "Certainly, Alex, as long as you want it." "Thanks," I said and hung up. I sat down and picked up my pen and thought for a minute. Remembering. Remembering a handsome, dark boy with a reckless grin and a hot temper. A tough, towheaded boy with a cigarette in his mouth and a bitter grin on his hard face. Remembering- -- and this time it didn't hurt--- a quiet, defeated-looking sixteen-year-old whose hair needed cutting badly and who had black eyes with a frightened expression to them. One week had taken all three of them. And I decided I could tell people, beginning with my English teacher. I wondered for a long time how to start that theme, how to start writing about something that was important to me. And I finally began like this: When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride
---. "A Rose for Emily." Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 3rd ed. Orlando: Harcourt, 1997. 80-87.
This story takes place in a New York City school in Manhattan, in the nineteen- sixties. The book covers the span of one school semester form September to February.
changing. Faulkner uses the rose as a symbol to show loss in Emily’s life and how she refuses to
In "A Rose for Emily," William Faulkner's use of setting and characterization foreshadows and builds up to the climax of the story. His use of metaphors prepares the reader for the bittersweet ending. A theme of respectability and the loss of, is threaded throughout the story. Appropriately, the story begins with death, flashes back to the past and hints towards the demise of a woman and the traditions of the past she personifies. Faulkner has carefully crafted a multi-layered masterpiece, and he uses setting, characterization, and theme to move it along.
The rose is very fragile and needs constant care. Love is not a matter of choice; it is a matter of consequence; indeed, it is a matter of survival. Men must learn to love one another or expire. Love is what gives life meaning. The little prince's love for his rose is so important to him that his love gives the author's life purpose and direction.
They do well in school, but they also are involved in extracurricular activities. Average Joes are well rounded students who try hard and study only when it is needed. Their parents support them in all of their activities and encourage them to do their best in all that they do. Average Joes do not go out of their way to study all the time. They worry about their grades but not excessively. Average Joes care as much about their activities as they do about their academics. For example, they feel it is just as important to be a good football player or show choir member as it is to be a good student. They sit back and let the Overachievers take over so they will not have to do as much work. They do not volunteer to do more than is required of them. Average Joes put forth just enough effort to maintain a good grade, but they do not strive to be the best in the
Having explained the reason most children have become disheartened at the thought of school, I now turn my attention to the students who do realize school’s educational value. These are the students that will continue to prosper throughout their lives because they realize the extreme importance of education. There is a secret, yet not so secret, motivation behind their determination to exceed standards and expectations in school. The secret they withhold is their overwhelming desire to be successful in the future.