Mike Rose's "I Just Wanna Be Average" Questions

1. Even though Rose did not learn a lot "educationally" in Voc. Ed., he learned a lot about the people around him and society in General. His teachers didn't seem like they really cared about the students' education, maybe because they didn't care about the Voc. Ed. kids or maybe they just didn't care about students at all. Some of the teachers would just let the class do whatever they wanted and some would resort to verbal and physical abuse to keep the students in line. I have never had any experience with teachers that were that bad but in high school there were always the teachers who would get overwhelmed with a rowdy class and let it get a little out of hand.
2. Voc. Ed. kept Rose and his fellow students from progressing and living up to their potentials because it just gave them a lower level education instead of just teaching them to work through their disadvantages. Because of this, the students got used to just scraping the bottom of the barrel and doing just enough to get through, not only in school but in other parts of there lives as well.
3. High school was disorienting for students like Ken Harvey because you will always come across people who have different beliefs than you. You grow up being taught to believe one thing than when you get to high school you have to deal with people who don't belief the same things. Also people with totally different backgrounds, if you're used to always being with one group of people then you get thrown into somewhere were there is all different backgrounds, ethnicities and religions it can be very disorienting. The way he copes with it is he accepts the labels that have been put on him because he is in Voc. Ed.
4. The main thing that was disorienting for me about college was just getting back into the whole school atmosphere. I only took one year off school after I graduated but it was a little weird starting school again and having to do homework and go to class.
5. I can picture people I went to school with who are just like the people Mike Rose describes. Students who would rather say "screw this" than do the school work or even go to class. I was one of them for awhile, I really didn't enjoy high school very much, but I realized that school is important and you can't go very far in life without it.