¶ … Wanna Be Average," written by Mike Rose. Although each of these writers has a very different writing style, both essays deal with similar issues about the educational experiences of young boys growing into men. Five main areas will be discussed: assimilation; the power of academic reading; identity crisis; self-awareness; and cultural conflict.
Assimilation
Blending into a new and different culture from the one you are accustomed to can be a challenging and frightening process for people of any age. For young people who are still in their formative years, it can be even more confusing and intimidating. They have not yet developed the coping skills that adults have, and they often do not understand the strange, exciting, and sometimes uncomfortable feelings they experience in the process. Writers of both of these essays go through experiences of assimilation in their childhood years. The experiences are similar in that they both are centered in educational environments, and each of the writers was profoundly affected by the process as it affected him.
Richard Rodriguez is Chicano, a person of Mexican descent who was born in the United States. For him, the process of assimilation involves moving between two worlds. One world is that of his home life, with Mexican parents who have little education and who cannot fully understand what their children are going through as they become "Americanized." The other world is that of school, where, like all children, he wants to fit in, and to not stand out because he speaks or acts differently from the other students. One day, he writes, "Proudly I announced to my family's startled silence -- that a teacher had said I was losing all trace of a Spanish accent" (Rodriguez 598). To him, this is a wonderful and praiseworthy accomplishment. They do not understand this at all.
Rodriguez describes the way he gradually became drawn into the American culture that his parents could never be a part of. He writes, "It mattered that education was changing me. It never ceased to matter. My brother and sisters would giggle at our mother's mispronounced words" (602). However, the sense of isolation that assimilation brought seems to have been even harsher for Rodriguez than it was for his siblings. He was a very self-aware child, and he was drawn quite strongly to books and to academia. This would eventually cause a geographical separation from his family; emotionally, the separation began long before.
Rose's assimilation from one world to another is also a life-changing experience; however, it is different from that of Rodriguez in many ways. His essay opens with a description of the bus ride to Our Lady of Mercy School in Los Angeles, California, where his parents hoped would offer him a better education. However, the entrance procedure involved a series of steps, including test-taking, and his test scores were mixed up with those of another student who shared the same last name. As a result, Rose was placed in a vocational program. This, unbeknownst to him and his parents, was basically a dead end in terms of higher education.
This is how Rose's first rite of passage begins, with his mistaken placement into the wrong program. Unlike Rodriguez, Rose is not troubled with accented English or the need to assimilate into a culture that is ethnically different from his home environment. He does, however, receive an insult about his Italian heritage in his early days in the new school. Still, the process of assimilation is disheartening for him; his classes are not challenging. Very little is expected of him and his classmates, and they respond by doing very little, if anything at all. While his academic growth is severely stunted, though, he develops in other ways. As he describes it, "I did learn things about people and eventually came into my own socially . . . . Growing up where I did, I understood and admired physical prowess, and there was an abundance of muscle here" (Rose 185).
As Rose gradually becomes assimilated into the culture of Vocational Education, the mistake that was made with his entrance test scores comes to light, resulting in his placement in another program in the school, College Preparatory. Here, once again, he begins to absorb the values and standards that dominate this new "culture."
The Power of Academic Reading
Another way in which both essays are similar is that academic reading plays an important role in each of them. Each of them...
Mike Rose and Richard Rodriguez expose the weaknesses in the American educational system. In "I Just Wanna Be Average," Rose talks about his experience being accidentally placed into the vocational tract at school, when he was actually an advanced student. When he is eventually shifted to the college prep level, Rose notes that he lost all motivation to learn and it was a struggle to find inspiration in education.
Education Richard Rodriguez and Mike Rose both write about their education. In "I Just Wanna Be Average," Mike Rose recounts his experience in Catholic school as an Italian-American from a working class family background. Because of a school error, he was placed in the vocational tract at school. The experience taught Rose a lot about the low expectations place on students, the lack of effective role models in the classroom, and
Rose found a teacher who served as educational mentor at the time when he was unsure he was academically worthy and who served as a life mentor right after his father dies. Jack MacFarland was able to forge his own identity with students as an English teacher. By being giving his all and clearly being prepared and motivated, his students, including the vocational education students, gave him their respect. One
" he was lucky too that a dedicated and gifted teacher came his way who recognized his skills and effort fully interceded on his behalf. If not for Jack MacFarland, Rose may never have gone onto Loyola or become the kind of person that he became today. In contrast, Richard Rodriquez's memoir "the achievement of desire" derogates education and amplifies the true value of the 'ordinary' person that is often overlooked... The two articles
What school integration and political correctness have accomplished pales in comparison to the continued harm inflicted on students through class-based educational tracking. Moreover, Angelou in particular points out that some schools in America are inherently underprivileged. The Lafayette County Training School "distinguished itself by having neither lawns or hedges, nor tennis court, nor climbing ivy," (17). The all-Black school was in disrepair, its students cut off from the sources
While his loss of accent brought himself and his teachers a sense of pride, it brought sorrow to his parents, who saw the change, however gradual, in their child. The author furthermore admits that for children like him, from a non-white American background, the home and school environment are at cultural extremes. This creates conflict that the young Rodriguez handled by conforming to his school environment. In effect he
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