Being Average

1) Rose had a very sub-par educational experience at the hands of the teachers of Our Lady of Mercy, where the teachers ran a range of uninspiring characters. There was the abusive Brother Dill and the unnamed physical education teachers who would use physical deterrents to misbehavior like a paddle or Brother Dill actually slapping the students across the face. Then there were those that were not prepared for the roles they were given as a teacher like Mr. Mitropetros who had the students reading the same text, Julius Caesar, aloud and only changing up who read which character when the students finished reading the play. I do not remember having an experience like this in part because there were the classes that I was interested in and classes where I gave it my all. For the latter they were memorable and the former I probably could not list them off if I tried. The closest I would have would be the ones where the teachers did not have the control over the classroom that they should have, trying to hard to be friends with students rather than teachers, but nothing to the level that Rose describes.

2) Vocational Education marginalized the students who had the misfortune to be labeled as non-achievers by their poor test marks. This likely lead to the appointment of teachers who were not as effective at their position to this post or caused the teachers that may have had a chance at teaching the children to write them off. It also encouraged the students to think less of themselves or accept that they would not achieve, developing methods of floating along with the least effort possible.

3) There are a number of reasons why High School may have been disorienting to a student like Ken Harvy; high school takes place in a time in our lives where most cultures not viewed from our lense of the 21st century starts to mark a boy a man. An adult who is responsible for themselves and expected to do something. Instead high-school becomes a place where you are still marked as a child despite the contradictory message from your own body and thousands of years of society. Also the whole Vocational Education program described here was as the author described it as a “dead-end.” Holding the students long enough that society accepted them as adults without giving them much in the way of hope of climbing from the ranks of the lower class. Some, like Ken Harvey, just develop lower expectations of themselves and strive to do nothing better than get by.

4) The biggest level of disorientation I have experienced was the shift back into the school mindset from having been a “functional member of society” from ages 18-22. In this I mean I had moved out of my parents house, I had my own place with a job I held for that entire period. In order to go to school though I had to make certain sacrifices with the notion that it would pay off. Things like quitting a job that paid me well enough to not worry much about going to dinner with my girlfriend and taking her out to the movies with friends, and doing this without worrying about having to split the check or ask her to cover this one. I just keep my eyes on the prize, what I am working towards and accepting the change for a small stumbling block.

5) I found that in high school I did not care much. I would never do the homework but I could get by on good test grades because testing was one of my strong points. While I hated getting an F or D, I was happy with a C and I did not find myself trying to achieve those higher grades. After the four year hiatus that was joining the workforce I developed a better sense that school was not just a place to hang out with friends but to work towards a better end, and as a result I have been taking my college years much more seriously.