Neglecting of Students

Standardized testing has become the main component in determining a student’s capability. A test should not determine if the student has a mind that is above average. In the article titled “Standardized Testing: Undermining Equity in Education”, it states, “Qualities such as a student’s sense of citizenship, ethics, confidence/self-esteem,...respect for others, self-discipline,...are not seen in standardized tests.” Every student is unique and has

The main point of Mike Rose’s Essay “I Just Wanna Be Average” is that being average is not the only thing for you to do. Throughout the essay he talks about how he started at the lowest part of the class. Where all the kids who weren’t doing very well in school or kids who didn’t really care much about school. He went through some hard times during his life and he failed at many things in school and wasn’t getting the best grades. However, he showed compassions in Biology. He did very well and actually got put in college prep classes, where the smarter kids in his school were. Rose is trying to say that there is a lot more to education than what most kids want from it, which is just doing the minimum and getting C’s. When Rose was placed

In the story “I Just Wanna Be Average” the author Mike Rose argues that society very often neglects and doesn’t see the full value and potential of students.

In his essay “I Just Wanna be Average,” Mike Rose approaches his argument based off of his own personal experience, revealing the unjust curricular and teaching styles in lower level education. Rose utilizes his credibility and relatability to the subject and the systemic organization of his essay to further his claim.

One of the main quotes Rose adds is when Ken Harvey says “’I just wanna be average” (80). Hearing this shocked Rose because people never strive to be just average, but in a place where they are already seen as being slower this was what they wanted. Depending on the background that someone comes from can affect the way they are in a classroom compared to others. Some have advantages right off the bat over some students because of their family or other influences. It can be easy for a student to work to be average but it can be difficult for people like this to work to be beyond this. It can be challenging when you are basically told by being in lower level classes that you are suppose to be doing that well in the first place.

Rose first explains how the educational system classifies a child’s class. He then proceeds to elaborate on how the vocational class works for those who do not do as well in school. He uses pathos so the reader feels emotional for the less fortunate student in the vocational class. Rose conveys his beliefs by using personal examples. He learns true qualities of people and shares the stories of Dave Snyder, Ted Richard, and Ken Harvey. Sharing the personal indications of what puts the students in the vocational class, gives the reader the notion that they have strengths that do not apply doing well in school. Rose ties the examples together in the end to confirm his opinion that one should never settle being defined as average.

“I Just Wanna Be Average”, is a book written by Mike Rose, which goes into detail about how he went through an education system that wasn’t designed for himself, but more so for the students that we’re not so smart. In this environment he was with both teachers and students that didn’t care much about school. He went to describe how even though the students wasn’t very educated many of them was special in their own ways, while others just never tried in school. One of the students he meet was Ken Harvey, who when asked about their opinion on working hard to reach their goals said, “I just wanted to be average”. Rose questioned why Harvey would settle for less than he had potential for. During Rose’s sophomore year his teacher checked his school

Education is what initially builds us and sets us apart from others. In “I Just Wanna Be Average” by Mike Rose, vocational education “a euphemism for the bottom level” is what set Mike Rose and his classmates apart from the rest of the school. Vocational Education seemed to affect Mike Rose in a negative and positive way. From the negative experiences he went through with his teachers and the low perspective others had of the “vocational track and their students” to the positive outcomes of how having other teachers that care for him and his education and only want what is best for him and his future.

The Essentials of a Good Life by Diane Ravitch was an essay that really got me rethinking what we call the school system today. It felt extremely relatable since I have spent over 13 years in school and I recognize almost all the points she made about the problems with school today. Many of her main points have to do with how schools are too focused on standardized testing and how they don’t teach creativity in school. This is a big problem in today’s society because school seems to be doing a lot less of what it was first meant to do which is prepare their students for the future. After reading her essay I believe we shouldn’t be focused on standardized testing and we should be spending more time teaching students how to be leaders, independent, and creative because these are qualities that promote success in today’s society.

Rusul Alrubail has a lot of difficulties throughout her journey but she achieved them in time, she studied, got help, and never gave up. Her claim was not all students are the same but don't mean they won’t try as hard as the rest of them. Next video in Joshua Katz, He talks about if you put a fish to climb a tree it would stay its whole life thinking he is stupid. Of course, he states about the “Nathalie’s” who are students that don’t learn the same way as the rest of the other students. What I learned from this video was that the companies that are into education are big liars that the way they are teaching has brought the standards higher but the presentation of failure higher as well. They might as well put the failure of students with the failure of teachers, failure of schools, and failure of learning. Lastly but not least the third video by Jonathan Levi talks about how kids that are special consider another kind of level. They are not considered dumb because they are not, they are just another level of learning. These students are humans that learn in different ways not the same as the other students making it harder for the teachers because they are taught for them to teach

In “I Just Wanna Be Average” by Mike Rose, Rose talks about his school life throughout this short story. He explains multiple things that went wrong, from having bad teachers, to getting abused, and never realizing he deserved to be treated with respect. Being treated in a negative way at school affects your attitude and behavior in class and also outside of class. Not one of the children in Rose’s class cared about school because they realized that the teachers had no training in the subjects being taught and were showing no attention to caring about the futures of the students sitting in front of them day after day. When Rose explains his schooling, he tells us that he was placed in the wrong track, had horrible teachers, and eventually stopped believing in himself.

At the beginning of the book, Rose mentioned many students who suffered school for many reasons. He mentioned Laura, who took his English’s class four times and dropped it because of the fear of making mistakes. Laura’s story showed that teachers didn’t try hard enough to help students overcomes their fear, instead they let them suffered. He also mentioned Bobby, he was a star during high school but felt lost when he came to college. He wasn’t prepared well enough for college and couldn’t complete any of his assignment. The lack of preparation from his high school teachers had failed him. The score that show on Laura’s and Bobby’s test had isolated them from their classmates. The teachers didn’t try to figure out what happened to these kids, instead, they focus on the test score, and removed these kids from their classroom, put them

“Our educational goal [is] the production of caring, competent, loving, lovable people” . The students found in the schools across the United State are the future of America. They are the doctors, teachers, business people, lawyers and many other roles, that will be out in the workforce in the years to come. What they learn in school will impact them immensely; it is the responsibility of a teacher to give students the best education in order to ensure the common good of the future. It is essential for students to not only learn content matter, but also the skills to enable them to participate in a democracy. Due to standardized testing, the emphasis of education has become on score and rankings rather than learning. A standardized test does not look at the whole student, the scores provided are on a very narrow aspect of education. In the classroom, there are countless ways for teachers to assess the student as a whole person not as just a score. Standardized tests scores should not be the sole criteria for determining a student’s academic achievement.

Public school systems need to be more sensitive to their students. Parents play the major role in determining a child’s academic outcome, but the school system needs to notice children who don’t necessarily acknowledge their gift. These children need guidance -- I believe it is the schools’ responsibility to provide it to them. I have been through a situation that makes me feel strongly about the subject. My example is an indisputable case in point.

In this case study, a third year first-grade teacher was faced with the dilemma of whether or not to talk to the principal about her concerns. One of her concerns was that two of the other first – grade teachers (who were very good friends with the principal) were always getting the high achieving students that came from wealthy backgrounds in their classroom. Her other concern was that these two teachers always had higher test scores because of the high achieving students that were placed in their classroom. This made her scores look bad because she always received the students that struggled to perform. The third year first- grade didn’t mind teaching the struggling learners but she did feel that ALL students would benefit from mixed classrooms. Therefore, she was faced with the following questions: Should I talk to the principal or not? Should I talk to the other first grade teachers? Should I talk to someone else? Or, should I just ignore the situation to keep things from getting worse?