Rhetorical Analysis Of The Drive To Succeed By Mike Rose

My target audience is my fellow classmates and students of all ages. I would like to reach anyone who feels they are “average” and also people who want to be more than average. My audience is of both genders and a variety of ethnic backgrounds.
The audience already knows that Mike Rose was a misplaced student who was sent on a dead end track for his education. He was then redefined by being placed in college prep courses and blossomed into a very successful writer. I believe anyone who read the core reading can remember a similar time during their education that they didn’t get what they needed from their given curriculum. From the rhetorical analysis, I suspect my readers will want to see ideas to make room for improvement in education.
I don’t expect to see any attitudes or biases, as I believe a better education is something everyone can agree on.
My relationship to the audience is that I am a fellow classmate and student. I hope that the audience will trust what I have to say, because we have all experienced a dead end and success at different points in our lives.
I would like everyone to see that there is always room to learn more and that people should not hold themselves to any certain standard for education.
Always keep the mind open and be willing to learn as much as possible in life.
The Drive to Succeed
“Students will float to the mark you set,” said Mike Rose (Rose 110). Every day students are being held to a lower standard. Not only does this happen at school, but in the home life as well. Today’s generation seems to have a lot of things done for them. We just hand out A’s, and allowance that hasn’t even been earned. From these poor examples being set for us, we lose the motive and drive that it takes to succeed. People are going through life with a sense that they are owed something.
At Our Lady of Mercy, children were put on a vocational track for their education. The vocational track was merely a “dumping ground for the disaffected” and “a euphemism for the bottom level” (Rose 110, 111). This is a perfect example of students being given a curriculum that teaches them just enough to get by. The basic skills of life, skills you might need to work at your local gas
station.
Students placed in classes similar to the vocational education classes discussed in the memoir “Lives on a Boundary” tend to have a harder time with comprehension and understanding their studies. When asked his opinion on achievement and working hard, a student, Ken, said “I just wanna be average” (Rose 112). Ken’s response shows that he feels he is under-achieving and less than average.
“More than 2 million youngsters in the United States have a learning disability” (Jost). Shannon Carter, a South Carolina teenager entered high school without being fully diagnosed with her learning disability. Her parents made the decision to put her in a private school because she was not receiving the help she needed to thrive in school. When Shannon was enrolled in her new high school, she was at a fifth-grade reading level. She graduated with a 12th-grade reading level. Shannon, like the students in the vocational education program at Our Lady of Mercy, only had a minimal disability. This school was not approved for placing learning disabled students, yet she became a thriving student and her abilities changed to meet those of the normal every day students.
During his sophomore year, Mike discovered his “own deliverance” (Rose 112). Mike’s biology teacher taught the course for the vocational education students, as well as the college prep students. The same curriculum and syllabus were used for both sets of students. The teacher, Brother Clint, altered his way of teaching to fit the needs of both sets of students. This set a higher standard for the students on the vocational track, yet he made it work for them. If the same curriculum was offered to students across the board, this would limit feelings of under-achievement and set a higher mark for students. Students would have a higher self-esteem and in turn create more drive to work harder.
Shannon and Mike’s stories are two perfect examples of students floating to the marks set for them.
When students are placed in special or vocational education classes, they have no idea that these are potentially a “dead end” (Rose 110). Shannon, like Mike, was probably “erratic” and undisciplined” when the transformation was made to switch to these classes with the same curriculum as the normal students (Rose 113). They have been sliding by for so long without being faced with the work that racks their brains. It seems as though students tend to lose more than they gain when they are put into these special
courses.
After being in classes that teach basic life skills for so long, students lack motivation. It is very easy for them to lose interest in their studies and like Mike, fall behind. In “Lives on a Boundary,” Mike says that “Jack MacFarland couldn’t have come into my life at a better time” (Rose 113). Jack Macfarland was a very inspirational and motivational educator for his students. Many students need a teacher who can take control of a situation and present the curriculum in a way suited to fit the audience. Teachers need to engage their students in the lessons they are teaching to help them better retain the information. Asking questions often and molding the teachings so that students understand is a very effective way of motivation.
Mike Rose went on to be a very successful published author. He was motivated by a great teacher and had a blossoming education. He seems to have been given the drive to always want to learn more and to go above and beyond the limits that were set for him at the beginning of his learning career.
I believe that Mike Rose was attending to his audience very well. He started his story off slowly. He first explained how he was put into a vocational track at school, and that he didn’t know it at the time, but it was a dead end. I think Mike’s goal in this memoir was to enlighten people of the effects of lower education. It can be very damaging to both people who need a special education, and those who are misplaced. These classes simply don’t drive students to work up to their full potential, or give them the necessities needed to expand their knowledge.
The gap in education could be solved by using the same curriculum for almost all students. If we have a higher goal to achieve, we will work harder to thrive. Every single assignment, math problem or book we read educates us a little more. When someone achieves a goal, even something as simple as completing a math problem, it will make them feel encouraged to complete more. Like Mike Rose, students can start to take in more of their surroundings and become a better learner.