In the article “I Just Wanna Be Average” Mike Rose teaches us we go through various obstacles in life. OFten we need someone who sees our potential in order to succed as the person we’ve always wanted to become. For example, Rose’s Sophmore Biology teacher noticed his good grades on tests and decided to look into it. There he realized Rose was in the wrong program the whole time. “He checked the school records and discovered the error. He reccommened that I beigin Junior year in the college prep program.” (Rose 4) Another example would be during Senior year when Rose’s English teacher Mr. MacFarland worked hard at this job as it showed in the way he taught students inspiring them with intellegence. “He analyzed poems with us… making a potentially difficult book accessible with his own explinations.” (Rose 5) …show more content…
If we are to grow without the help of others. We are often faced with more oabstacles than milestones. For example, even when Rose took the placement test into his high school, he was misplaced for two years without anyone noticing. “The error went undected,, and I remained in the vocational track for two years.” (Rose 1) These points in the article show them reader Rose was living in an uphill battle. I often feel the school systems placement exams are a poor example of a persons educational value. Rose is a good student, but was caught between trying to find his place from a social standpoint and his educational life. Once he was set into the vocational track at Our Lady of Mercy he realized his teachers weren’t qualified or even indifferent to their work.
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.
Individuals in the educational field commonly use educational tracking, as it serves as the conduit that assists students in attaining reasonable and logical career opportunities. An example of this emerges as Yadira’s boyfriend of the moment, Juan, explains his rationale supporting his decision of not attending college. This person views the educational experience as a particular stimulus that differs for all depending on their area of interest. Juan discloses to Yadira that technical school is a beneficial opportunity for him simply as he enjoys the mechanical aspects and felt that this particular method of education concentrating on mechanical specialty is a better fit for him than attending a traditional college. Educational attainment is vastly diverse, purposely, as it is designed to meet the needs of every person on an individual
Richard Rodriguez?s essay, Hunger of Memory, narrates the course of his educational career. Rodriguez tells of the unenthusiastic and disheartening factors that he had to endure along with his education such as isolation and lack of innovation. It becomes apparent that Rodriguez believes that only a select few go through the awful experiences that he underwent. But actually the contrary is true. The majority of students do go through the ?long, unglamorous, and demeaning process? of education, but for different reasons (Rodriguez, 68). Instead of pursuing education for the sake of learning, they pursue education for the sake of job placement.
The average human would think that going to school and getting an education are the two key items needed to make it in life. Another common belief is, the higher someone goes with their education, the more successful they ought to be. Some may even question if school really makes anyone smarter or not. In order to analyze it, there needs to be recognition of ethos, which is the writer 's appeal to their own credibility, followed by pathos that appeals to the writer’s mind and emotions, and lastly, logos that is a writer’s appeal to logical reasoning. While using the three appeals, I will be analyzing “Against School” an essay written by John Taylor Gatto that gives a glimpse of what modern day schooling is like, and if it actually help kids
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
The United States of America has placed low on the educational ladder throughout the years. The cause of such a low ranking is due to such heavy emphasis on standardized testing and not individual student achievement. Although the United States uses standardized testing as a crutch, it is not an effective measure of a student’s ability, a teacher’s competency, or a school’s proficiency.
The three works “Real Freedom?”, “Failure and Imagination”, and “The 4-Stage Response to Low Student Achievement” all share a common purpose. This is to inform their audience that education isn’t important because it buys expensive cars, a nice house, or a vacation to a tropical paradise. A human being cannot reach his full heights until he is educated.
...o think for themselves. He believes that students will become more active and informed citizens if they are brought up to think for themselves (155). Gatto’s proposed solutions can be found successfully applied in Mike Rose’s essay. In his essay he describes the mediocre education he received while on the vocational track. Mike’s future was looking rather grim until he came under the instruction of Jack MacFarland. This man was a wise and enthusiastic teacher who challenged students academically. He encouraged and inspired students to read, to be proactive in their classes, and to think for themselves. His classes were engaging and the students were interested in his teachings (165-167). The fact that the same solutions that Gatto proposed in his essay was successful applied elsewhere proves that teaching practices need and can to change for the better.
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.
Literacy, or the capability to comprehend, translate, utilize, make, process, assess, and speak information connected with fluctuating settings and displayed in differing organizations, assumes an essential part in molding a young's persons trajectory in life. The ability to read speaks to a key factor of scholarly, social, and financial success (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). These abilities likewise speak to a fundamental segment to having a satisfying life and turning into an effective worker and overall person (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1999). Interestingly, recent studies have demonstrated that low reading skills lead to critical hindrances in monetary and social achievement. As stated by the National Center for Education Statistics, adults with lower levels of reading skills and literacy have a lower average salary. Another study evaluated that 17 to 18 percent of adults with "below average" literacy aptitudes earned less than $300 a week, though just 3 to 6 percent of adults with "proficient" reading abilities earned less than $300 a week (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998).
She explains how her son was just pushed through school. “Our youngest, a world-class charmer, did litter to develop his intellectual talent but always got by” (559). He got through school by being a good kid, he was quiet and didn’t get in trouble. This was how he made it to his senior year until Mrs. Stifter’s English class. Her son sat in the back of the room talking to his friends; and when Mary told her to just move him “believing the embarrassment would get him to settle down” (559) Mrs. Stifter just told her “I don’t move seniors I flunk them” (559). This opened Mary’s eyes that her son would have to actually apply himself to pass. He wouldn’t be handed a passing grade. After the meeting with her son teacher, she told her son if you don’t try you will fail, making him actually apply himself. This made Mary understand that Failure is a form of positive teaching tool. Only because her son had to work for it and, now he actually came out of high school with a form of
Once students took a national assessment, which was not created by their state, many did not reach the level that was considered college and career ready. This was because different states, or more specifically different people, believed a knowledge of specific skills was significant in preparing a child for life after high school while others believed alternative skills were important in that preparation. Using nationwide assessments, namely the ACT or the SAT, to measure one’s preparedness for attending college or a specific career geared school may not produce the most accurate results for all; however for the sake of this essay, let it be assumed that using national assessments is the most accurate method at this time. Looking to the recent results of the nationwide evaluation, it is clear that something needed to be done. When there is a problem, it is in man’s nature to want to fix it, which is where David Coleman, Gene
That’s been making me realize how much reality is skewed to mean society’s standards. Society pushed education so much that in the process it loses its meaning. Like other situations, people shouldn’t feel like they are stuck in a corner with information shoved in their face, they must seek out the information for themselves. At what point does the drive for getting “good grades” overpower your own self value? The quest allowed me to identify and connect with my feelings. It’s so hard to find a balance between everything in life, and it’s something I’m constantly striving for. Quests like this, reconnect me with the need for balance and alleviates stress. When I was driving that was cultural. stores, after stores, after more store. But when we went up to the watch tower, it was much more natural. Besides the man-made path, tunnel, and watchtower, the healing powers of nature could really get to work. I think that at this point in American society, everyone in brought up in a system that is extremely cultural. Everything we do is because of American ideals, and natural ideas are rarely included. Although I like to believe I am where I am in my life right now, because I want to and because of the choices I’ve made (natural) culture tells me that in right where they want me. Playing by their rules. This exercise surprised me. I didn’t expect to go out and find answer, but the answers seemed to find me. Since I modified it to fit my needs I think it made it stronger, in my perspective. But also, since I was with friends and I wasn’t always in complete silence, that could have made it weaker. This assignment taught me a lot of things. In an attempt to help others, I ended up helping myself. My sign showed me that my meaning of life is other people. All I want to do is help them in any way possible. As I stood on that watchtower at 8:49pm I realized that the people you surround yourself
Test makers should not have the right to determine schools worth based on a lousy test score. The teachers should be the ones to determine these things since they acquire the opportunity to view the students’ growth from the start of the school year to the end. This marks them the only people with the right skill set to call these decisions. In The Sleeper Awakes, the Surveyor-General has outright authority over the society’s school system. The Surveyor-Generals had a “monopoly over education” (Wells 120) and dictated the schools. They can be a symbol for the standardized tests, as they should not have the right to call the shots when it comes to deeming a student’s worth. Standardized tests also limit the creativity in a teacher’s curriculum since the teachers are so focused on teaching to the test. Without these tests, the sky’s the limit when it comes to education. The teachers could teach more innovatively and then determine if the student is ready to move
Opponents of entrance exams argue that they do not exactly measure the students’ potential and competency. However, the exams really evaluate an individual's ability for the candidates. Perhaps most importantly, universit...