"I Just want to be Average" by Mike Rose

9/29/2009

This is article is kind of the complete opposite of the article I last blogged about but it was just as provacative. "I Just Want to be Average" by Mike Rose provides a compelling look at the "average" kids in education and what they deal with. It details the defense mechanisms these kids set up for themselves just to get by in school. "What Ken and so many others do is protect themeselves from suffocating madness by taking on with a vengence the identity implied in the vocational track." I believe Rose wrote this article to tell that a student just needs to become inspired by a great teacher to escape mediocrity and become truly great in the world of academia. Rose himself was but an average student before he was inspired by his english teacher Mr. Macfarland. "I worked very hard for Macfarland had hooked me. He tapped my interest in reading and creating stories. He gave me a way to feel special by using my mind." I believe this is essential to a good education to be a teacher that inspires his/her students to become truly immeresed and interested in their studies. This is something I as a future teacher hope to achive for my students.