Analysis Of I Just Wanna Be Average By Mike Rose

Education Systems Throughout history school has been a place that a child attended on a daily basis. The school day consisted of basic mathematical skills, reading, and writing. After a person graduated or aged out of school, he or she often worked or tended to children and household chores. Mike Rose, author of I Just Wanna Be Average, was born in Los Angeles. He worked as a professor at UCLA and advocated for proper school placement after enduring a rather challenging circumstance while attending school (345). Rose outlines several of issues with the educational system, that society still sees today. While students today do not directly have the same issues as Mr. Rose, they do experience several other harsh aspects throughout their education
According to a state standard website, “common core is a program that has a clear set of college and career ready standards for the educational system, that has an emphasize in English and mathematics” (common core). However, this leads to the possibility of children not understanding what is being taught. Not only do the kids who are having a hard time keeping up not learn anything, but the kids who excel in school are held back because the student only learns what is being examined. Mike Rose says, “The vocational track, however is most often a place for those who are not just making it. A dumping ground for the disaffected” (348). Yes, common core focuses on only first and secondary education, but imagine the students who barely scrapped through their education. These students now have lost a chance of a great future because educators have taken away the ability for them to have knowledge of anything and everything able to be taught. This is very similar to Rose’s experience because he was forced to take a different pathway than he
The main forms of teaching are competency based education and proficiency based education. Competency Works states “refers to a systems model in which teaching and learning are designed to ensure students are becoming proficient by advancing on demonstrated mastery and schools are organized to provide timely and differentiated support to ensure equity” (Competency Works). This training basically means that students in school are only taught the basics to survive in life not the skills and knowledge to become extremely successful. They are forced to learn successful traits on their own, like an animal in a zoo learning co-habitat with people. The second type of teaching is proficiency based education. Maine Department of Education states “proficiency based education refers to any system of academic instruction, assessment, grading and reporting that is based on students demonstrating mastery of knowledge and skills they are expected to learn before they progress to the next lesson, get promoted to the next level, or receive a diploma. The general goal of proficiency-based education is to ensure that students acquire the knowledge and skills that are deemed to be essential to success in school, higher education, careers, and adult life” (Maine). While these types of teaching styles are great on several accounts, they are highly ineffective because it blocks a student’s ability to learn outside