Challenges and Self-Actualization in Education: Mike Rose's Perspective

In the autobiography Lives on the Boundary, Mike Rose tells his story, in his perspective, on what he has gone through with education. During his grade school years, Rose began to grow an interest in particular subjects such as chemistry and English. Around his high school years, he found interest only in his class in English with his professor, Mr. MacFarland. Soon enough, Rose begins to grow an interest in English when he began attending Loyola University; however, he did not breeze through his rigorous courses in college. He has seen people emotionally break down and struggle immensely to get by along his way of becoming a professor at UCLA. Ultimately, however, with all of these things Rose sees throughout his life, he has had many self-actualizations
Narratives allow readers to grow an imagination and build off of what the authors are writing about. Additionally, they are a way and means of people trying to express themselves in an artful manner. In the case for Rose, “Reading opened up the world.” (Rose 21); it opened the gates for Rose to build a creative mindset that most students do not have throughout their educational careers. As for myself, reading has allowed me to understand what certain aspects of writing is popular to this day. Additionally, narratives have allowed me to reevaluate my views on American society as a whole; at first, I believed that there was clearly something wrong with me when I was placed into remedial English at De Anza. Now that I mentioned it, my teacher back from the summer treated me like I was a child that was blind, literally guiding me through every step of developing literacy, summary, and paraphrasing skills. I noticed how my teacher weeded out some of the students in my class as if they were not suit for the class; it clearly showed that she was part of the educational system that I did not want to see anymore. Luckily, I was able to pass the class and actually go to a teacher that actually believed that all students are capable of creating masterpieces. Several teachers in fact (not just her), throughout my life, have challenged my critical literacy skills and even inspired me to think further
It is a means of communicating and expressing oneself to others; being literate allows ordinary people to address things thoroughly amongst their peers. Work becomes more efficient, people begin to understand America more, and they all become that much closer to self-actualization when being literate. For Rose, reading opened up his world that was passed the small hometown in South Vermont; he was able to pursue a college education even if he struggled through it all. Even for me, I was able to understand the importance of having critical literacy skills when encountered with teachers that challenged my capabilities as a student. Schools should be enforcing critical literacy skills because it will allow America, as a whole, to become more of a country that can express themselves through words. But literacy alone will not help our country become more helpful, we need the contribution of everyone, teachers, students, time, sweat, and tears to compel this country to becoming something even