Lives On The Boundary Summary

Lives on the Boundary: An Assessment of the Flaws in Our Educational System

In the opening chapter in Lives on the Boundary, Mike Rose points to an underlying issue in our educational system; how to deal with the diversity in our schools of students' knowledge and comprehension of taught material. Imperfections in the educational system makes it rigorous for certain students to learn what is being taught. Since each student is different, ideally each student should be taught in the way that suits him or her best. However, this is not the case. Throughout schooling from K-12 the curriculum is the same or very similar for everybody, but at the same time each person is an individual who has his or her own strengths and weaknesses. Many people
I did not pick up on this at the time but Mike Rose tells the elongated version of his childhood to show how an underprivileged child born to immigrant parents can easily struggle and be written off as a result. Mike Rose's parents were immigrants from Italy. Throughout Mike Rose's childhood they struggled financially and did not have the opportunity to get involved with his education, through no fault of their own. Mike Rose's interest in reading dissipated throughout his early teen years as a result of him being sent to the vocational track. He was surrounded by peers and teachers whose expectations of him were substandard. One day in vocational track the religion teacher brought up the topic of talents, achievement, and hard work. A student named Ken Harvey was asked to give his opinion on the matter and his response was one that has stuck with Mike Rose all these years: “I just wanna be average” (28). Mike Rose holds the belief that this is primary issue with the vocational track. As a result of these students being labeled as remedial they tend to shy away from school in general and just want to be mediocre. Mike Rose is attempting to open the eyes of teachers. He realizes that these students are not properly evaluated and that teachers need to do more to get through to their
After dropping out of the UCLA graduate program, Mike Rose joins the Teacher Corps. He is sent to El Monte and is assigned to work with fifteen of the school's worst reading students. Mike Rose uses what many would consider unconventional methods to get through to these students and finds a dramatic increase in their reading and writing comprehension. After his time working with these particular students was through, he came to the realization that these students were destined to falter. The pedagogical methods that were used by the teachers in that school were not necessarily methods that worked for every student. The students Mike Rose taught were not slow witted, they were simply just being taught in a way that did not suit their abilities. Mike Rose gathered that it was the backgrounds of the students that affected their schooling. It was not until Mike Rose understood all of these factors that he determined the underlying problems that the educational system in America, a land full of diversity, is currently