Mike Rose Why School Summary

To no one’s surprise, most Americans are aware that education is a necessity in life. Not only does it allow one to further their knowledge, but it can offer freedom from anything holding them back, like poverty. A bar graph statistic from the Congressional Budget Office found that people with their Master’s degree between ages of 45-54 years old make $130,000, whereas high school graduates between the same ages only make about $70,000 (Dent). Even though America offers some of the best education in the world, many do not realize the impact that social class has on one’s education. Whereas most other nations fund their schools equally, America spends much more on the more affluent districts.

The Game of School: Why We All Play It, How It Hurts Kids, and What It Will Take to Change It by Robert L. Fried is a great tool for identifying challenges in school systems and planning school reform. This book explains in great depth the problems faced by students and educators in schools today and ends with a call to action for solving these problems. Some major concepts that arise frequently throughout the book are time being wasted, students feeling powerless and the prioritization of test scores over authentic learning. Time is wasted by everyone in school and is wasted in various ways, for example students are given busy work and teachers rush through a curriculum while students learn nothing. Students, while they are the most important stakeholders, feel as though they have no control over their education.

Mike Rose details the faults of the education system in a piece concerning his own personal experiences. His high school education was radically changed when his school swapped his test scores with the scores of a student with the same last name. The system depended upon test scores to determine the path of classes that individual students must take, and due to the weak performance reflected in Mike Rose’s alleged scores, he was placed on the vocational path. Unfortunately, the vocational path was implied to be the lowest tier of classes in the school - so despite Rose’s natural intelligence, he was placed within remedial classes due to the IQ within his file.

All Americans want their future generations to be well educated—at least, all Americans should. When it comes to the topic of education, critics attack it by claiming that there are issues with how our American students are being taught. Some believe that education is too focused in an argumentative culture and that environment narrows our perspective, while some argue that the issue is in the commercialization of our educational system. Collectively, educational value is destroyed. Authors Benjamin Barber, Deborah Tannen, and Gregory Mantsios all agree that our educational system is flawed.

The lack of educational resources

In Carl Singleton’s article, “What Our Education System Needs is More F’s,” he argues that students aren’t receiving the failing grades they deserve. School systems are to blame for the lack of quality in America’s education. No other recommendation for improvement will succeed. The only way to fix the American education system is to fail more students. According to Singleton, the real root of the issue is with the parents.

In the “Against Schools” article, author John Gatto describes the modern day schooling system and its flaws. He uses several rhetorical strategies in trying to prove his point. He successfully uses all three types of rhetoric in writing this article, which includes ethos, pathos, and logos. He establishes these strategies very early, and often throughout the article. He believes one issues with today’s schooling system is boredom, and that there is a distinct difference between what it means to be educated and schooled.

The essay, The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher, by John Taylor Gatto addresses educational curriculum with a cynical truth that transpires around the United States. His brutal honesty grasps the reader by using common sense and a hint of sarcasm to appeal to humor. The main point of his argument in my perception, states that we must develop children to be critical thinkers and not always agree with authority. By allowing the schooling in a child’s development expecting them to not question an adult’s words does lead to a population that has accepted being dumbed down. Following what has been indicated, a direct quote positions people deprived forever of finding the center of their own special genius (Gatto, part III, pars 3).

A recent study released by Pearson that questioned over 400,000 students in grades 6-12 shows that only “48% of students think their teachers care about them…and only 45% of students think teachers care if they are absent from school” (Hare, 2015). This shocking statistic demonstrates what American students think about their teachers. Most students are under the impression that their teachers don’t care about them. When teachers don’t care about their students and allow them to fail, many students with unrealized potential give up on education. Mike Rose’s “I Just Wanna Be Average” describes his journey through high school on the vocational track after the results of his “tests got confused with those of another student named Rose” (Rose, 1989, p. 2).

February sixth was the day of my last middle school game. We were playing our rivals , Ledford middle school. The first time we played them we only lost by two points. The first five starters for Ledford and our first five including myself were all standing at half court for tip off. The ref. threw the ball up and Gillian tipped it back to me.

Education is a noticeable social establishment used to sustain the overall estimations of a general public. Many of us believe and expect that, education should be an engaging procedure that permits and assistants kids to build up their interests, basic considering, critical thinking, empathy, and introduction towards smartness for favorable activity. The article Inequality in public school by Michael Godsey, the U.S. department of education mentioned that, “equality in education is vital because equality of opportunity is a core American value” and integral to the country’s economic strength (P. 71). As I believe that everybody has the privilege to get the education and there ought to be equivalent open door for every one of the general population

What is school really trying to do with our lives? The article “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto is an article that talks about the problem of schools and how the goals are not what they say they are. First. the author talks about how the school system creates boredom and what could be done to fix it. He then talks about how school is not needed in its required class times, what the schools say the goals are for the students, and where our school system originated from.

Quincy came out of school today upset. Now this is nothing new, but what had him upset is. At first all I got out of him was, "Mommy I wasn't bragging, I was just so happy." Later it was, "I was so happy because I never win. They said I was bragging, but I was so happy my heart sang.

Therefore, with all these invariably increase in unproductiveness with the profession, the standard and quality of education was

Education is vital to one’s life and well-being, however since education isn’t free so many kids around the world can’t take advantage of it simply because of their economic status. When people become educated, it allows them to develop different perspectives and would not only see an improvement in their life, but in society as a whole. There’s no doubt that education is the most important thing to enhance the lives of individuals. Without it, kids aren’t able to reach their full potential, causing citizens to experience major issues in life such as a low standard of living, ignorance, and among other things. Education should be free for everyone, regardless of their economic background, because every individual is important and should have the equal opportunity to better themselves.