The essay by Mike Rose made me really think about the purpose of education schools have to offer us. He talks about how a basic exam can determine your whole life; it made me really think about how accurate these tests really are. The purpose of this essay seemed to be how he feels students failures isn’t because of us, its because of the school system overall. He shares how the vocational track is basically portrayed as students who are not motivated to learn. The question he makes us think about is, why are these students so unmotivated to learn? He states how for the most part the teachers are the ones who are not motivated enough to teach them. Basically the teachers have to be there because it’s their job, and from the moment of the student’s first grade the teachers automatically think that they’re UN teachable. Students believe whatever the teacher says so they start believing that their stupid and so they wont try. Later on in the book, Rose talks about Jack MacFarland. He descries him as a unique person, because even though he’s a teacher he puts work to make students understand that all teachers are not the same.
1. Roses’ life in Voc.Ed was a nightmare. R he teachers would basically talk to him like he’s retarded. Roses’ teachers were so unmotivated to teach him. They basically gave up on everyone who was in voc. Ed since day one.
2. Voc. Ed. Basically made everyone not want to learn anything. It affected them in a harsh manner because the students started to believe that they were never going to be anyone in life so they just stop trying all together. Math was a subject that Rose could never come to a full understanding of it because, it was his teachers’ unwillingness to make sure he continually learned this skill.
3. Students, who often see themselves in a negative way, see a negative impact on their schooling. Ken Harvey didn’t necessarily think he should being the Voc. Ed. pathway. He took it out on himself for being led to that pathway. At the end of the day, he knew he couldn’t change it, and other people’s opinions didn’t matter to him, He had to realize that in a classroom like his everyone had their own opinions that often did not match the likes of his. Students often let the opinion of others bring them down and affect them in their academics, but if you set your mind to it at the end of the day no ones opinions really matters accept your own.
4. Jack offers rose the help and support that roses’ teachers would not give him. I think anyone with Roses’ intelligence can succeed if they put their mind to it.
Roses essay makes me think about the reality of this world. How the mistake of the school district can impact your life in a whole different way. How students who are placed in “slow” classes, basically get no help at all because teachers believe their UN teachable. Don’t people realize that makes a child’s life even worse?
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Many people of all ages have different views on education. In the following essay I will compare two authors’ ideas on the educational system in America. I will share my thoughts from the essays titled “Against School” by John Gatto and “I Just Wanna Be Average” by Mike Rose and how they relate to my experiences and schools today.…
- 470 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
First, when I look at the authors push to get an education I see in Richard Rodriguez’s essay that he was very motivated. He started as a young boy with an accent striving to learn more and attain knowledge whenever he could because he knew of the benefits. In the story Rodriguez says that he shifted away from family life to study more and learn more from his teachers. He wanted school rather than his uneducated family. In contrast, Mike Rose clearly didn’t want to be in school, he wanted an easy way out of things. Rose explains he was put in vocational classes by accident, but decided to stay in the classes with the lower level students. He explains how the teachers could care less about the student’s education which affected Rose because he saw himself and everyone as being average.…
- 733 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In the reading Possible Lives by Mike Rose, Rose talks about an education and community in Calexico, California. He started out by mentioning that Calexico is a Bicultural city where they speak two languages, the city residents is of 21,000 with majority Spanish speakers. Calexico was originally not a city but a surveying camp with the name of Mexico and California put together. It was until 1908 that it became a city and no longer a surveying camp. Rose then focus on how the schools work together to give kids higher education, dealing with bilingual education programs, and ways of teaching in Calexico that respect their local history.…
- 527 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Gatto used personal anecdotes as a mode of development throughout his essay to convey the point of schooling being unnecessary. He started out explaining how in his teaching years, he would often have students complaining about being bored and the work they were forced to do. The students also explained to him how teachers were bored and disinterested with the material they were teaching. Gatto then went on to explain that we are all to blame. “My grandfather taught me that…when I was seven I complained to him of boredom… He told me that I was never to use that term…, that if I was bored it was my fault and no one else’s” (Gatto 148). He then taught the same thing to his students, however he realized that boredom naturally caused…
- 890 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
On August 9,2014 , The world was sent in to a tailspin when an unarmed black teen named Mike Brown was shot seven or eight times and was shot at 12 times by Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer. This started riots in Ferguson, Missouri and all over the United States of America. Darren Wilson was not indicted for shooting .This also brought up the age old question, “Does police/society care about black lives.” Maybe the first time this question was with Rodney King, an American construction worker who became nationally known after being beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers following a high-speed car chase on March 3, 1991.This vicious attacks was recorded by a local witness in sent into KTLA. Like the Mike Brown, this sparked riots around Los Angeles and all around America. But unlike the Mike Brown case the four officers was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and excessive force. Another case is the case of Oscar Grant, who shot in the back while handcuffed by a BART police officer. Like the first two case it started riots all over America but like the Mike Brown case the officer was not indicted .…
- 196 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
2. Explain, using examples from the video and course concepts, how Jim’s self-concept impacted his interaction with his father. Was it positive or negative?…
- 452 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
In “I Just Wanna Be Average” Mike Rose recalls his years of vocational school. As a matter of fact, the inclination of Mike Rose in this particular class was an accident. However, he decided to keep his enrollment with the students of lower level. Rose, in this particular work, describes the teachers, fellow students…
- 1465 Words
- 4 Pages
Powerful Essays -
In what ways does this essay point out the education system’s effect on teachers as well as students?…
- 1336 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays -
In the article, “In Praise of the F Word” by Mary Sherry, Sherry talks about the educational system and how the handing of high school diplomas is meaningless. The problem concerned is that these high school graduates are founded to be semiliterate when entered into the real world. Sherry teaches basic grammar and writing for adult literacy programs, hearing the different and unpleasant experiences of graduates being passed along high school. Sherry argues that teachers flunking their students should be seen as positive teaching tool, and creates the expression of confidence by both teachers and parents that the students have the ability to learn the material presented to them. She would never forget the teacher that grabbed the attention of her world-class charmer’s son. Mrs. Stifer was his English teacher, who was the first teacher to ever threaten him with the trump card of failure. With the support of Sherry and his teacher, the attention for making English his priority suddenly changed, making him finish out the semester with an A. Sherry then explains the angry and resentful students for having been passed along high school. She states the effect of passing students who have not mastered the work cheats them and the employers who expect graduates to have basic skills. The students eventually get frustrated with bitter comments such as, “I don’t know how I ever got a high school diploma.” She generalized this dishonest behavior by saying the kids can’t learn if they come from terrible environments, but then argues that the real reason is that most kids don’t put school as a priority unless something is at stake. She claims that most students would rather be cruising along. Sherry then discusses the difficulties that students may have, but still making education their priority. Students are motivated for success and the desire for a better job, giving them the healthy fear of failure. She believes this fear of failure,…
- 416 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Holt states that the student learns that “learning is a passive process, something that someone else does to you. Instead of something you do for yourself.” On this point I agree with Holt, because schools force you to learn their way instead of focusing on your strengths and weakness’. I also believe that school is not the only way to learn, and that schools should encourage students to learn things on their own outside of school instead of teaching the students that school is the only place you learn. Students should also be placed into classes by skill level instead of focus so much on the grade number they are in.…
- 877 Words
- 4 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
the struggle between students that are either doubtful or really uninterested in what he was aiming for.…
- 564 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Introduction – Rather than outline this case going step by step to ultimately provide a synopsis with my overall opinion, I thought I would read the case all the way through and conclude with my thoughts and personal view.…
- 417 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
School failed me, and I failed the school. It bored me. The teachers behaved like Feldwebel (sergeants). I wanted to learn what I wanted to know, but they wanted me to learn for the exam. Einstein and the Poet (1983)…
- 1010 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
What is the purpose of our schools in America? The goal of our schools is to provide every student with the same foundation of knowledge, whether or not it is necessarily relevant to the student’s interests. Because of this goal, the same method and style of teaching is often used for every student, regardless of how that student learns best. As of now, It is obvious that the “the aim of schooling is to get all students to the same place at about the same time” (Eisner 1). If an outsider were looking in on our schools they would think that we discouraged uniqueness. Though this set-up might work for some students, it assuredly does not work for all students. Because every student is treated in the same way there is no recognition or understanding, on the part of the school, that each student is a special and distinct person. The current educational purpose and structure supports alienation and stifles human connection between teacher and student, although this could be changed through a culture of care and personalization in teaching.…
- 992 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Williams & Burden articulate contemporary views on learning when they state that education "must focus on the learner” (1997:205), emphasizing learner participation in the learning process as joint course-designer, decision-maker, and evaluator, but also as a developing individual making sense of and constructing meaning in his/her own world (Piaget 1973; Kamii, Lewis & Jones 1991). The learner is an individual with different needs and these must "be considered as an integral part of learning, as also must the particular life contexts of those who are involved in the teaching-learning process”. There are three general factors which have direct impacts upon the process of learning. This factors namely: (1) school-level factors, (2) teacher-level factors, and (3) student-level factors (Marzano, 2003). The school-level factors are “primarily a function of school policy and schoolwide decisions and initiative.”: (1) a guaranteed and viable curriculum, (2) challenging goals and effective feedback, (3) safe and orderly environment, and (5) collegiality and professionalism. The teacher-level factors are “primarily under the control of the teachers”. These are: (1) instructional strategies, (2)…
- 337 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays