Mike Rose's Lives on the Boundary
Mike Rose’s Lives on the Boundary is an Educational Autobiography. The book begins at the beginning of his life and we follow him up into his adult years. The book focuses on the “struggles and achievements of America’s educationally underprepared” .
The Alien
In order to understand Mike Rose, and his book Lives on the Boundary, you must first understand where Mike is coming from and examine his past. Mike was born to a first generation immigrant family, originally from Italy. He spent his early childhood in the mid-west and then in his latter childhood, parents not knowing any better, in East Los Angeles. Mike’s father suffered from arteriosclerosis. Neither Mike’s mother nor his father had completed high school and no one in his family had ever attended college. This is the setting, background, and characters of Mike’s tale of “struggles and achievements of America’s educationally underprepared” . Through this book Mike constantly is emphasizing three main themes. First, the importance of an educational mentor; later in this treatise we will examine several of Mike’s mentors. Second, social injustices in the American education system; specifically the lack of funding and bureaucracy’s affect on the public educational system. Third and lastly, specific teaching methods that Mike has used to reach out to kids on the boundary.
Throughout Mike’s life, he had the fortunate experience of having some inspirational mentors. I have identified four of his numerous mentors as the most critical to his development, both educationally and personally.
Achieving Abnormality
The first of Mike’s mentors I would like to discuss came into his life just after his father passed away, beginning of his senior year. His name was Jack MacFarland. Jack, as described by Mike Rose is,
…a beatnik who was born too late. His teeth were stained, he tucked his sorry tie between the third and forth buttons of his shirt, and his pants were chronically wrinkled.
With a cultural background like Mike’s, survival in the American educational system is a difficult struggle at best. However, Jack helped fill in some of the critical cultural blanks. “He slowly and carefully built up our knowledge of Western intellectual history – with facts, with connections, with speculations” . And Jack served as more than simply a source of numb...
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...t seems that every-other president and every-other governor refers to himself or herself as the education president or education governor, yet they fail to deliver the necessary funding to maintain a high level of education for all of his or her constituents’ children. Why is it that class and culture is the determining factor for who receives a quality education, this social injustice must be remedied.
My Awakening
Much like Mike, I have had some amazing academic mentors that were not afraid to get down in the trenches with me and ask what I was trying to say. I had Ms. Lewis my freshmen year of high school, she would sit down with me and rip apart my paper and rework it as necessary. During my senior year of high school, I had the privilege of taking a U.W. English class that was a seminar format where the instructor would frequently conference with us, and he gave me the tools to continue my education. However, something we all need to remember, especially at PLU, is to not be afraid to be a mentor to someone else. In life, we are all teachers. We tell one another our stories, and by doing that we are teaching them what it is like to look at the world through our lens.
Raquel and Melanie are two poverty stricken students that attended University Height’s High School in the South Bronx, because their school was not federal funded, it lacked resources; so it does not come as a surprise, perspective students like Melanie and Raquel have more of a ...
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The issue of equality in education is not a new problem. In 1787, our federal government required all territories petitioning for statehood to provide free education for all citizens. As part of this requirement, every state constitution included, “an education clause, which typically called for a “thorough and efficient” or “uniform” system of public schools” (School Funding 6). Despite this requirement, a “uniform” system of schools has yet to be achieved in this country for a variety of reasons, many of which I will discuss later on. During the early part of th...
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Lindeman stresses the value of using the experiences and skill sets of alumni to influence current students. Teachers relish in the benefits of having former students return into their lives. Thanks to today's social media outlets keeping in touch with students is as simple as clicking the “follow” button or sending a “friend request.” Lindeman is a teacher, who makes an effort to stay connected with graduates, finding that during reconnection she is able to unfold and learn many things about their recent adventures, research, and views on life. Ultimately, she can reveal the person they have grown to become. “She calls it authentic continuing education! Their messages can be powerful connections to the world beyond high school.” When teachers
I gulped. This was clearly not a good start to my family’s first night as permanent staff members at Rancho 3M Orphanage in Guadalupe, Mexico. I had found myself sitting in this cinderblock structure (the only blonde-hair, blue eyed girl for a solid 200 miles) on account of my parents. They had not just decided to merely move our entire family away from our hometown, but they had decided that as a family unit, we would trade our cushy, country club lifestyle to work in an impoverished area of Mexico, caring for children who had been abandoned. We all yearned to provide for them a hope and a future: a chance for an education. To be more than just street smart. To have their existence mean more than knowing which gang is better to commit their life to. My family desired for them to be book smart.
Mozart was talented in music from an early age at three he was picking out chords on the harpsichord, at four playing short pieces, at five composing. Before he was six, his father took him and his sister , to Munich to play at the Bavarian court, and a few months later they went to Vienna and were heard at the imperial court and in noble houses. At the age of seven, he picked up a violin at a musical gathering and sight-read the second part of a work with complete accuracy, despite his never having had a violin lesson.In the years 1763-1766 Leopold obtained a leave of absence from his position and the family set out on...
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Mentoring is a strong educational tool and is very useful especially within the New York City Department of Education. It is a great way for experience teachers to pass down information. The one and one interaction is more lasting than reading it from a book. This method will allow a smooth transition for new teachers. There are a lot of procedures that are confusing to beginners and mentors can uncoil those kinks. Beginning teacher will also get the opportunity to experience different teaching styles and also decide what will work for them and what will not. Mentoring is a valuable asset in guiding person’s development.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756- December 5, 1791) born in Salzburg, Austria to a family of musicians such as his father- Leopold Mozart who was a violinist in the ruling Archbishop of Salzburg orchestra and an author of a best-selling introduction to playing the violin. Wolfgang’s father, Leopold quickly learned of his son’s musical talent and by age 6 young Wolfgang was playing violin, piano, organ, and composing. In 1672, the Mozart family journeyed on a four-year tour of Europe with stops in Vienna, Munich, Brussels, Paris, and London. While in Vienna,
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In the play, A Doll’s House portrays the fixation to keep up with appearances through the main characters’ actions and words. A Doll’s House creates a statement about the gender roles and social norms in the nineteenth century. Ibsen argues that individual tend to get sidetracked due to appearances, especially in an effort to please society. Individuals tend to focus on the opinions of others, therefore they believe that keeping up with appearance is important. Appearances can be used to masks or deflect various hardships and issues of reality. A Doll’s House depicts that not everything is how it appears. Appearance are not necessary, if fact they only hold people back from doing what is important and distorts reality.