I just wanna be average analysis
Mike Rose is a critically acclaimed writer and professor in the School of Education at
UCLA and has won many awards for his work. In this selection called “I Just Wanna Be
Average” taken from his book Lives on the Boundary, Rose offers his experience trudging
through the standardized vocational education track. Through his own account, the author points
out that society and even faculty within these schools label the students as “slow” leaving the
students with an objective of wanting to become just average in order to make up for their
presumed sense of inadequacy given by their so called educators. In this selection, Rose uses a
lot of casual language and anecdotes of experiences in high school in order to reach out to
students of all ages who might be struggling to find the value of their own intellectual capacity
buried within the standards of what school systems considers intellectual. Through the style of
his story telling, he conveys his message to his audience without necessarily forcing the idea on
Throughout the chapter, Rose narrates his high school experience in chronological order.
He first describes the bus trip to school and many of the characters that he came across in this
environment like Christy Biggars, the sixteen year old dealer or Bill Cobb, “the grease-pencil
artist extraordinaire”. The author also gives detailed descriptions of what the teachers such as the
“troubled and unstable” Brother Dill or Mr. Mitropetros who Mike Rose claimed to have little
training in English but yet still managed to find a job as an English teacher. Before even
describing what the education system in a vocational school, the author gives us some
background information on some of the student demographic and some of the teachers that were
in charge of these unruly students. Giving a detailed description of these people gives readers a
closer look in the overall environment before looking
UCLA and has won many awards for his work. In this selection called “I Just Wanna Be
Average” taken from his book Lives on the Boundary, Rose offers his experience trudging
through the standardized vocational education track. Through his own account, the author points
out that society and even faculty within these schools label the students as “slow” leaving the
students with an objective of wanting to become just average in order to make up for their
presumed sense of inadequacy given by their so called educators. In this selection, Rose uses a
lot of casual language and anecdotes of experiences in high school in order to reach out to
students of all ages who might be struggling to find the value of their own intellectual capacity
buried within the standards of what school systems considers intellectual. Through the style of
his story telling, he conveys his message to his audience without necessarily forcing the idea on
Throughout the chapter, Rose narrates his high school experience in chronological order.
He first describes the bus trip to school and many of the characters that he came across in this
environment like Christy Biggars, the sixteen year old dealer or Bill Cobb, “the grease-pencil
artist extraordinaire”. The author also gives detailed descriptions of what the teachers such as the
“troubled and unstable” Brother Dill or Mr. Mitropetros who Mike Rose claimed to have little
training in English but yet still managed to find a job as an English teacher. Before even
describing what the education system in a vocational school, the author gives us some
background information on some of the student demographic and some of the teachers that were
in charge of these unruly students. Giving a detailed description of these people gives readers a
closer look in the overall environment before looking