DQ #3
In this first half the book, it is clearly evident that author Mike Rose has lived through a pretty eventful, yet meaningful life through schooling and the teachers that he has met along the way. I’ve often heard people say that to truely understand something, you have to experience it and Mike Rose does just that. He is an educator who comes to sincerely connect with his students because he is on their level and has formerly experienced what they are experiencing, presently. In your opinion, do you think Rose would have connected as well as he did with his students in the Teacher Corps volunteering if he hadn’t been able to relate to their struggles? and if yes, would it have been as effective do you think?
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I think that Rose would of not connected as well as he did if he did not go through the struggles himself. Like it was stated before you do not truly know how hard something is or what something is like until you really go through it. I believe by Rose going through these struggles not only did it make him a stronger person but it gives him the power to relate to students and give the students reassurance. I know if I was a student and went to him I would feel much better taking advice from someone who had similar struggles as I did and knowing that in the end it was all ok.
I agree with Amanda, I do not think that Mike Rose would have connected with his students. It is one thing to have sympathy for people and feel for the events that they are going through versus actually having lived it. No one can truely see the other side unless they have been there. Being an educator, alot of your students will have problems that you do not know anything about but you have to be the one stable thing that they have in their lives.
I don’t think Mike Rose would have been able to connect as well with his students if he had not been able to relate to their struggles. By being able to relate to the struggles and experiences of his students he was able to relate to them. He knew what they were going through and all the difficulties and challenges they were facing in their lives because he had also had those experiences. It is very difficult to identify with and relate to someone if you personally never experienced their struggles. As an educator it is especially important to be able to relate to your students. Teachers need to be able to connect with their students and form a relationship with them. This is easier when you have experienced similar situations your students have experienced.
I dont think Mike Rose would have been able to connect with his students as well as he did if in fact he hadnt experienced much of what his students were going through at the time. It is hard to relate to people sometimes if you dont actually have experience with the problem someone may be facing. It is important that Mike Rose went through some of the same struggles as his students because that opens up doors of communication and a good relationship between student/teacher. I think his experience with certain situations allows the students to trust him more as a teacher.
I think that Mike Rose wouldn’t have been able to connect with his students if he hadn’t experienced it himself. There are many ways to relate to someone, as not only a student, but as a person. Most people say you can’t understand something unless you actually try it yourself. I think Mike Rose, going through all the struggles, has helped him a lot through his teaching career.
I think that knowing the situation would have made a huge difference in Mike’s being able to relate to the students he is teaching, but I also think that if he did not have the positive people in his life whom he describes as taking the time to help him, etc., he would by no means be where he is today, and have the full understanding that he does. So, along with the understanding of what some students need to overcome, he also has been graced with support and situations that most people are not benefitted with. I was actually wondering myself, where his parents were and how exactly he got into these situations where he had so much support accessible to him, when it seems others did not. Why him?
I also agree with the previous comments that Mike Rose would not have been able to connect with his students as well if or at all if he didn’t relate to their struggles in a similar way. After all the central idea of his book is that educationally under prepared students, or students who are often labeled as basic or remedial deserve more credit then they are given. So-called remedial students, Rose argues, fail not because of poor skills or intelligence, but because of narrow understanding and limited opportunity. Rose examines how economic and social forces influence both the perception and performance of under prepared students. Rose points out that the public outcry against declining educational performance, and the data that supports such fears, is misguided and should be reexamined in a broader context. He talks of the challenges of coming from a working-class neighborhood and growing up in an immigrant family and how both negatively influenced his attitude towards and chances for quality education. Rose’s realization of this influences how he reacts to his students and takes into account their personal life, their backgrounds, culture, etc. There are many different levels on which a person can relate to another human being, not just older student (Rose) to a new student, but there are more personal grounds in which he relates to his students. The key to educating another human being does not lie in recall or rote rehearsal, it lies in the personal connections between the teacher and the student. By knowing the teacher is real and human (it helps coming from a similar background) you can create your own relationship with that teacher and learn from their experience and your own to create meaning in life, education etc. I do want to pose a few other questions because I am so far concerned with who Mike Rose wrote this novel for, if it is for illiterate people, the people who are suppose to fix education(teachers/government), or just to educate the public? I am also confused to why he would write of such problems but propose no solutions? What solutions could be proposed to help fix some of the problems that lie in education?
we are all products of our experiences, but each person’s life is unique. i think that teaching may have helped Rose understand his own past more than his past helped him teach. one of the fastest ways to cut off communication with someone is to say “i know how you feel,” because it is not possible to know how anyone else actually feels. true, Rose’s own education should have given him some sympathy for struggling students, but many factors in their lives, from ethnicity to learning handicaps were outside of his own. at least some of Rose’s pedagogical success must have been due to an innate ability to teach.