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Lives on the Boundary: Post #1

2/10/2021

21 Comments

 
We will be talking about Lives on the Boundary for a number of classes, so, to begin, for these first two chapters, please post between three to five big ideas about literacy education in the United States that we learn from Rose's story--so I'm asking you, as Rose is wanting you to do, to extrapolate from his own experience as a student (and, in the opening, as a teacher), what can we say about what is going on in literacy education in the United States? 

WHAT TO POST THIS TIME AROUND: Please Post your 200 words by class time tomorrow (11 February 2021). You will have time in-class to read and respond to at least one of your colleagues. 
21 Comments
Patricia Diaz
2/10/2021 06:36:16 pm

After reading Lives on the Boundary, I have three big ideas regarding literacy in American education today. The first one is that the education system has made students believe that writing has to be perfect. Usually, when educators assign a paper for students to write, students imagine the final result. Meaning that in order to obtain a good grade, the paper has to be perfect. Nonetheless, they forget that writing is a process. Though it can be polished, revised, and improved with feedback, it takes time to get better at it—which can be easily forgotten if low grades keep being the final result. My second idea is that students are not encouraged to write more in some subjects. Many students, like Bobby, don’t feel like they have anything to write about because they are not encouraged by their teachers to write about something discussed in class. My last idea is that the education system has made students feel like the standardized tests reveal all their knowledge on reading and writing. These tests have become important in determining the future of many students to the point where they feel that their skills are low if they obtain a low grade without even thinking that the result could have been attributed to other factors.

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Olivia Halpin
2/10/2021 06:43:07 pm

Rose begins the book in Chapter One of “Lives On The Boundary” by describing a couple students at UCLA who are failing and struggling in remedial English courses. One student that stood out to me in particular was Laura. Laura came to the US when she was six years old. Rose describes that Laura is trying to pass her remedial English course for the fifth time. My first big takeaway was that I initially thought the system is failing Laura if she is putting in the substantial effort to try and pass a course five times! Rose writes on page seven that, “So we look to the past--one that never existed for the effective, no-nonsense pedagogy we assume that past must have had” (7). Rose’s point here is that we can assume as educators that the system in the past was less flawed, then it is now because this isn’t the case. There has always been a “literacy crisis.” (This is my second takeaway…) Rose also writes that, “The fact is that the literacy crisis has been with us for some time, that our schools have been populated with students who don’t meet some academic standards” (7).
My third big takeaway was that some students will not try with literacy in education out of fear of failure. As teachers we can find ways to encourage students to read and write literature without feeling the pressure of having to be perfect/ not make any mistakes. Rose described a childhood classmate Ken Harvey who stated, “I just want to be average.” He was settling because he didn’t want to set the bar to high out of fear of failure. This is a defense mechanism some students may use in their classes (of not putting in all their effort) so that they will not feel frustrated, humiliated, or less then if they do not reach a “high” standard. Rose writes that this is “a powerful and effective defense—it neutralizes the insult and the frustration of being a vocational kid and, when perfected, it drives teachers up the wall, a delightful secondary effect. But like all strong magic it exacts a price” (29). I think the “price” it exacts is referring to that student’s future and education that they are willing to let go of in fears of not being good enough. This was really sad to read and made me think back to situations in my life where I didn’t try enough/settled or people I know didn't put in their full effort (in academics or other areas) because of fear of failure.
A fourth takeaway from Chapters 1-3 of “Lives on The Boundary” was from Chapter 3 “Entering the Conversation.” Rose’s undergraduate Professor Albertson helped Rose better understand his reading assignment by having Rose go back, re-read and use critical thinking. Father Albertson taught Rose the importance of close-reading the assigned texts and then followed up with thoughtful discussion. Rose had to utilize discipline and persistence in order to close-read some of the frustrating texts assigned to him. Rose writes that, “I had to read, very, very closely, leaning over the thin Formica desk in the trailer, my head cupped in my hands with my two index fingers in my ears to blot out the noise from the alley behind me”(57). Rose could possibly suggest that close-reading with thoughtful/meaningful discussion is an important skill to be taught in the US education system that would help students in being better critical thinkers, readers, and writers.

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Stasia Wing
2/10/2021 07:16:59 pm

One of the first takeaways that I took after reading Lives On The Boundary was that Rose also brings up the essay “Johnny Can’t Write” and discusses his opinions on the topic. “Johnny can’t Write” is based on a National literacy issue, and it affected Rose and his students no differently. Rose himself has had students like Bobby and Laura who struggled at the college level. He even mentions that Laura was an immigrant coming to America at six years old. By then she most likely had been fluent in another language and during her childhood years she must have spent a lot of her education learning the language of English. Relating to “Johnny Can’t Write” Rose says “Among the many, many children, adolescents, and young adults who became the focus of this national panic were college freshmen like Laura” (5). My second takeaway is that Rose writes about his highschool English teacher and his experience being in the classroom. Rose writes “Sophomore English was taught by Mr. Mitropetros… He had little training in English, so his lesson plan for his day work had us reading the district’s required text” (25). This shows that students aren’t getting the best education that they could be if they are being taught by teachers with very little training. Due to the little training there seemed to be no creativity in the lesson to engage the students, but only to read the required text. In order for students to do their best they need stimulation from their teacher’s in that their teachers are enjoying the subject as well. My last takeaway was that Rose mentions the greater takeaways from having a very engaged teacher who enjoyed what they were teaching, but also gave them enough work to want to do well in the class while understanding the novels being read. He writes “these papers with their circled, red B-pluses and A-minuses linked my mind to something outside it. I carried them around like a club emblem” (34). There is a mixture of teachers in America like Mr. Mitropetros and Mr. MacFarland that it creates inconsistencies among students.

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Danielle Delaroca
2/10/2021 08:18:13 pm

As soon as I read the preface I was extremely excited to read this book. The story of Laura really struck home to me, and reminded me of what we discussed last class as well. Hers is a bit different though because she was not born in the United States and everyone around her was so different. She held herself to this high standard so much so that she dropped a class time and time again and when she finally took it, she psyched herself out and believed she was not good enough to write a good paper. It’s sad because we have all seemed to feel this way. Like we are not good enough even if it is something we major in and compare ourselves to other people and doubt our abilities. Another thing that stood out was the statistics from Franklyn Holt’s 1906 study. This blowed my mind because the results were not so encouraging and continued to be for 80 years. That wasn’t the shocking part because I guess it makes sense how they would think grammar and the quality of writing amongst young people is “bad.” However, when Rose went on to say “He wasn’t teaching the earlier incarnationsof Laura, Bobby, and most of those in English A. Women, immigrants, children of the working class, Black, and Latinos occupied but a few of the desks at Brown, Harvard, and other elite colleges. Those disgraceful, students were males from the upper crust.” THIS IS SO IMPORTANT. So much of these “statistics” that we use as judgmental tools against students barely have any diversity so how are they accurate for EVERY student. I really liked the vulnerability of chapater 2 and the part that struck me the most about his experiences was when he talked about how extrinsic awards diminishes the intrinsic satisfaction children experience and how we have created an educational system that has students obsessed with evaluation and assessment. However, grades are subjective. Growing up I was always the friend who struggled and my friends were the ones fixiated on getting good grades and putting so much pressure on themselves to be perfect. As a teacher, I love Rose’s philosophy that grades are subjective. Receiving a good grade is always nice there is no denying, but it is up to the educator on how they grade and every one of them is going to grade differently.

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Olivia Halpin
2/11/2021 09:07:14 am

Hi Daniellle! I really liked your point ....“I really liked the vulnerability of chapter 2 and the part that struck me the most about his experiences was when he talked about how extrinsic awards diminishes the intrinsic satisfaction children experience…” The importance of intrinsic motivation in education and the role it plays in student’s learning is crucial. As educators we have to be thinking how do we inspire students to want to learn and give their full effort? I agree with Rose's philosophy that grades are subjective as well. We want to be students and teach students who are actually learning the content and not just learning how to work the system for good grades! There is definitely pressure for students to get perfect grades where the real emphasis should be in progress towards learning goals.

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Sydney Silverman
2/12/2021 07:32:37 am

Danielle this was a very passionate response to the story. I am sure that anyone from a culturally background can relate to this story because it speaks the truth. The story becomes evenly emotional when the person struggling is a friend and/or close one. Still to this day, we are still obsessed with our academic success rather than actually learning and it truly takes a toll on our mental health. Roses philosophy suggested that it is okay to not be a straight A student, but we often forget this. Rose's story should be read more in schools so young students can exposed to Rose's philosophy of grading and school systems.

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Catie Mullen
2/10/2021 09:20:39 pm

The first three chapters of "Lives on the Boundary" written by Mike Rose, tell a detailed autobiography about Mike's childhood and the education he received up to college. Different teachers made different impacts on him, along with different events happening in his life, for example the death of his father. All of the things happening in his life and the influence of teachers, peers, and administrators in the education system have affected his writing. My first takeaway that I noticed since in English 301 we have been having a discussion about it, is how many people following or involved in the education system believe that students nowadays are growing up to be poor writers because of their lack of grammar skills. As we have learned the past week in English 301, grammar doesn't really effect they type of writer you are. "Back to basics advocates" (Rose 3) wanted to have teachers implement grammar more in their studies. Rose said surprisingly, the constant reiteration of math and grammar skills are things he remembers from high school. While yes those things are of importance, I would hope he could've taken away something more substantial or learned something useful to him in life rather than a bunch of grammar skills. Another big idea from this text is similar to the "Why Johnny Can't Write" article. Lives on the Boundary really shows how administrators and professors think about student's writing. A problem with literacy education right now is that everyone thinks that young writers are "truly illiterate" (Rose 2). How are students supposed to succeed or improve their writing when their teachers don't even believe in them and think of them as illiterates? Rose brought up the many teachers who weren't helpful or cut out to be influential teachers. He also brought up the good teachers that made a difference in his studies and writing. A third big idea that I have been noticing a lot more this semester is the benefit of reading. You always hear people say that reading makes you a better writer, and I haven't truly believed or understood that till recently. "Reading opened up the world," said Mike Rose on page 21. Reading does open the mind to new things and thoughts you did not have before, which in the end supports your writing and creativity. Not only does reading help with your writing, but it makes you more knowledgeable. To Rose "knowledge was becoming a bonding agent" (Rose 37). It provided Rose with a critical perspective on society (Rose 37). A final big idea I realized from reading Rose's story is how grades or test scores don't necessarily mean much to how smart you are. Some people can't take tests and struggle with that. Everyone learns in a different way. Rose's teacher MacFarland open his mind up to how special Rose's writing was. Mike Rose said his grades stank, but after reading more through his story and educational background, it was very clear that his grades didn't define who he was. He was still a phenomenal writer.

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Djenifer Fernandes Goncalves
2/10/2021 10:03:30 pm

Mike Rose argues in the first chapter that the education system has failed most students. There are ideas regarding literacy education in the United States that proves this argument. The first big idea is that the education system has marginalized students. Meaning the system has made students believe that they are incapable of writing well. Those questionable doubts stay with students for the rest of their lives or until they hit college. They become unprepared because they’re in low-level classes, and so they believe that they’re terrible at writing just like Laura. The thing is, these students were forced into thinking that they’re incapable of doing better. Rose states, “The more things change, the more they remain the same” (5). We’ve been taught the same way for years, no wonder why we’re short change. Another big concept of Rose’s argument is failure. We praise our students when they have accomplished something, but we ignore them when they fail. Teachers should be normalizing failure. A lot of times students tend to give up because they’re too afraid to fail. I’ve read something before that said, “If thought corrupts language, then language corrupts thoughts.” Therefore, let’s start thinking of failure as a positive aspect of life because you only fail when you give up. The third big idea is motivation. Motivation is the foundation of all knowledge. Without motivation, there is no point in doing anything (At least for me). In the second chapter, Rose briefly describes how his lack of motivation made him view the world differently. It’s not every day that students will want to do homework because honestly they just don’t care about it. They’re not inspired to want to it, but only because they have to do it. I think the education system is to blame here because sometimes school drains the life out of many students. Teachers need to be reminded that students need a break every once in a while.

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Sara McNaughton
2/11/2021 04:47:23 am

One of the first big ideas that Mike Rose discusses is that there has always been a literacy crisis. In class, we discussed the same concept. Rose emphasizes that reading and writing are hard skills. Inevitably, there will always be a group of students who do not succeed in literacy. However, Rose encourages educators to look closely at student failure. He argues, if an educator looks closely enough at a student’s failure, they will find knowledge that their test did not measure, complex ties between literacy and culture, and the intricate difficulties of the American school system. Additionally, Rose argues that students know more than tests measure. This idea suggests that a holistic assessment would be more adequate than a traditional test. I once had a teacher that would always leave this prompt at the end of her test, “Use this space to tell me anything you learned that the test did not cover.” I believe Rose would find that prompt beneficial for students. Moreover, he states that students have “not been taught how to weave that knowledge into coherent patterns” (Rose 8). This suggests that students have the knowledge, but they struggle with communicating it effectively. Overall, Rose argues that the issue with literacy has always existed and is a complex issue. However, he approaches this problem with radical hope, as should we.

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Angel Walsh
2/11/2021 05:40:31 am

After reading the first chapters of LOTB, Mike rose points out a few big ideas about literacy education here in the U.S. The first thing that stands out is how quickly schools are to write students off and not care about their educational well-being. Mike Rose was put onto the vocational path in school and not a single teacher managed to pinpoint that he was zoning out during lessons. The vocational path was set up for those that were deemed to not succeed. Mike Rose writes, “the vocational track, however, is most often a place for those who are just making it, a dumping ground for the disaffected” (Rose, 26). The teachers that taught these students had no idea how to spark their interest and make them want to learn. Instead the students just skated through their educational careers not learning anything. Teachers should make learning English enjoyable for students, regardless of their educational track. The next thing that stood out to me was the story of Laura. Laura was a student that signed up and dropped Mike Rose’s remedial English class multiple times. The reason she gives is because she feels like she is going to make too many mistakes and that she will look stupid and that makes her panic. In today’s world people are afraid to do things and failure because of the judgement of others, this is not any different. Laura speaks to me because I was unsure about being an English major for the fear of making mistakes and not understanding as much as someone else. The world of English makes people, like Laura, feel as though if the make a mistake they will be judged rather than taught the correct way. The last thing that stood out to me is the way that Jack MacFarland finally made English enjoyable and worth learning for Mike Rose. When students get that one teacher that makes something worth their while, it will stick with that student. There are teachers out there that truly care about the success of their students and Jack MacFarland is one of those teachers. He made sure to get Mike Rose and others into a college, followed up with them after they left high school. He had a passion to teach these students the joys in the world of English. While this is not necessarily a flaw in the literacy education, it can be seen as one. If more teachers were like Mr. MacFarland we would have more students who feel engaged in their learning.

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Courtney Beale
2/11/2021 05:48:20 am

In the first three chapters of "Lives on the Boundary" by Mike Rose, we see him revisit his past as a struggling student in grade school who felt incompetent in his scholastic abilities. The first big point that stuck out to me is in chapter 1 when Rose had set out to observe Dr. Gunners English A class at UCLA, which is the most basic English that you can teach. Rose explains the exceptional conversation that took place between the teacher and the students about the renaissance and philosophers and the Latin roots of words. he follows this by, "These are the truly illiterate among us" (Rose 3). Here, Rose is explaining that these students that are being labeled "illiterate" are actually bright students with good ideas and promising futures. The ability to write good composition shouldn't be the determiner of success. The next point I pulled out was the feeling of being underprepared when it came to receiving college instruction. Bobby, one of Dr. Gunners English A students explains that, "They're asking me to do things that I don't know how to do. All the time. Sometimes I sit in the library and wonder if I'm gonna make it. I mean I don't know, I really don't know" (Rose 4). Immediately after this, Rose says that Bobby was a student that did well in school and never felt failure. But now? Bobby feels as though he isn't cut out for the work. Rose says, "A young man who never failed, failing" (Rose 5). Through Rose's imperfect experience as a student, he learned many valuable lessons. One being, as he says, "You're placed in a curriculum that isn't designed to liberate you, but to occupy you, or, if you're lucky, train you, though the training is for work the society does no esteem;" (Rose 28). Here, Rose is explaining that curriculum isn't designed to make learning fun or interesting. Students are expected to completely understand the ins and outs of a bulleted list of curriculum, whether it interests them or not. Lastly, and I believe to be the most important to me and the basis of this class is the emphasis on the fact that you don't need to have flawless grammar to be a good writer. For years and years, people have blamed the poor writing skills of young students on the lack of grammar skills and instruction. Rose explains that these students do know more than their assessments conclude. However, these students "haven't been taught how to weave that knowledge into coherent patterns" (Rose 8). As we've said multiple times, writing is hard. It isn't a skill that most people pick up quickly. It takes skill and practice.

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Catie Mullen
2/11/2021 07:55:07 am

Hi Courtney! A place in your response that I wanted to start a discussion with was about grammar. You mention how "students are expected to completely understand the ins and outs of a bulleted list of curriculum, whether it interests them or not." One of your last takeaways was regarding the discussion of whether being knowledgeable in grammar makes you a better writer or not. You said that writing "isn't a skill that most people pick up quickly. It takes skills and practice." Students do know more than their assessments conclude, which was also a point I brought up in my reading response. Knowing basic grammar or math skills doesn't define how smart or how well of a writer you are. This is something to keep in mind as we continue to go through or education degrees. By keeping this in our heads, we then can make a difference and alterations in our classrooms for students. Professor Torda said in class today that as a teacher, you need to make your assignments interesting and influential. I understand that we have a requirement when we are teachers to follow the curriculum, but there is some leeway in that where we can get creative with our assignments. This in the end encourages our students to divulge in their work in a good way where what they are learning will stick with them.

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Maria Pestilli
2/11/2021 06:02:09 am

The students Rose talked about in his story seemed so familiar to me, they seem familiar because there are dozens of students out there in the world like them. When I was in school, I knew a girl like the girl named Laura in the story. She came to live in America from a foreign country and she struggled to learn English. She had such a hard time learning English she had an aid who spoke both English and her native language follow her around for almost the entire time she was in High School. And for Laura she failed her ESL class five times. (First Takeaway) It makes me think that maybe it is not the students who are at fault but maybe it is Education in general. Rose states, “look to the past--one that never existed for the effective, no-nonsense pedagogy we assume that past must have had…The fact is that the literacy crisis has been with us for some time, that our schools have been populated with students who don’t meet some academic standards” (Rose 7). What Rose is saying here is that the system for education has always been flawed, we cannot look to the past for help because the system was just as flawed then as it is now. My second takeaway is that there has always been a literacy crisis, I agree with what Rose says. Every year at schools there are students who struggle to read and write at the level they are supposed to. I have seen this for myself when I have observed at schools, many students are struggling. This makes me think that it is not the teacher’s who are at fault because it is not possible for so many different teachers and different teaching styles to be at fault. I believe the literacy crisis stems from the Education system itself. My third big takeaway is from Rose himself; he talks about how another cause for the literacy crisis is educators giving up on their “illiterate” students. Which is something I have seen many times as a student myself. Granted there are plenty of great teachers out there who support their students to the best of their abilities but there are also just as many who give up too easily. Rose’s work is very important to the betterment of Education in my opinion. I think if more people read and understood his work that the Education system would not be as flawed as it is.

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Olivia Halpin
2/11/2021 09:02:37 am

Hi Maria! I just wanted to say that I totally agree with you point that the so-called "literary crisis" has existed for a while now. Students have struggled to read and write in every generation and this is not a new phenomenon in education. I think it is really a shame that you yourself have had to experience educators who give up on their students. So far, with what I have read of Rose's book I would agree that it is a wonderful book for educators to read and thoughtfully consider his ideas in regards to both literacy and education in general.

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Vanessa Semeraro
2/11/2021 06:21:41 am

In chapters 1-3 of “Lives on the Boundary” by Mike Rose, the reader was able to see the viewpoint of education from someone who has been through it and soon after, questioned their choices. The education system, as we have seen, has been questioned by many writers and those who question these practices considering the high standards students are demanded to follow, yet the poor educational system we are taught. The literacy in American education, today, is based on perfection. We are told to learn something once and expected to complete a full assignment, exam, paper on it without any mistake, and with the high chance of a mistake, our grades are impacted and thus results in a low GPA or feeling of being a failure. The idea of ‘being average’ was placed in these chapters and expressed how that is all they wanted to be considering they felt as though they could not reach the standards placed on them. This heavily lies on the teachers and how they were taught to teach, or their laziness of teaching as the years progressed. It is known that students enter a classroom with little to no understanding of topics, yet they are held accountable of teaching themselves what should have been taught to them by the paid ‘professional’.

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Rowan Kelley
2/11/2021 06:28:23 am

I had never heard of Lives on the Boundary but reading the first few chapters enthralled me. A lot of what Mike Rose discusses as a student, I empathize with as a student myself. Something that caught my eye immediately, as I’m sure he intended, was the group of students at the beginning of Chapter 1 that are considered to be the illiterate when they are clearly capable of gaining permanent knowledge. All too often I feel as if students are able to succeed without actually learning, and it is not the student’s faults. As Laura feels on page 8, “Some are struck dumb by the fear of making a mistake.” From Rose’s story, we are able to see how serious literacy education in the US is, which at the time wasn’t much. Some teachers had little to no training in English, and others resorted to physical violence when students were out of control (25). That is a completely inappropriate atmosphere for students to feel supported to learn, especially when they are already underprepared. Rose describes it well on page 28, how school can be a disorienting place with new people, competition to excel, and difficult during the transition to find one’s identity. I personally always struggled with school. When I was younger, I seemed to excel, yet as I got older, I slowly began falling more and more behind my peers while being able to fake it as if we were equals in knowledge. Rose points out, “Let me try to explain how it feels to see again and again material you should once have learned but didn’t” (30). I found it too embarrassing to speak up when confused, which led to more stress and failure later on. As a student gets older, there is more expected familiarity when taking a class, which is even more frustrating for the student when everyone else seems to understand and you’re lost. The education system was very telling when Rose’s school mistook him for a different student and failed to recognize the error for a significant amount of time. As Mike explained, how are he and his family to recognize the error or stand up for themselves when it truly should have never happened in the first place, especially such an error as having a student in incorrect classes. Rose writes, “These four men collectively gave me the best sort of liberal education” (58), which is astounding that out of all adults, educators, and administrators surrounding this student growing up, it was 4 people who took the time to ensure their own students success. Rose does touch upon a few more other teachers that helped him throughout his education journey, but to think that only a handful of educators made his schooling worthwhile is telling. We as educators need to communicate and work with our students and administration to ensure that active learning is occurring in our classrooms, and in my opinion, we also must stop assuming that a student already knows something, as now more than ever, students come from various backgrounds.

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Cedes
2/11/2021 06:30:50 am

I grew up in a family where my mother is from America, but my father is not. His entire family came here, like Rose's parents, looking for a better life. Many times we have immigrants that come here in search of streets of gold and find nothing but a bunch of folks with cold shoulders. Rose described his parents as feeling "Isolated and deceived. They had fallen into the abyss of paradise— two more poor settlers trying to make a go of it" (13). I know my father has felt the same way... nothing brings light to his eyes like talking about the country he loves but had to leave for America's version of better. In America we take this life for granted, we shun it, we refuse it... but to people who come here looking for better, they've left everything they know behind to try and make it... we need to approach those people with kindness and acceptance, as teachers we need to be willing to create curricula that will help them to grow and succeed here, like Dr. Gunner did. She could've easily not cared so much and let her students slip through the cracks like some teachers do, but she worked harder to find a way to reach her students so she could teach her students. I think Rose started with this story because he wants us to think about the way we navigate though situations that seem difficult due to our lack of experience in interacting with different types of people. Rose says that Dr. Gunner, "Refuses to see her students as marginal" (2), and her dedication to her craft is what helps her students rise above the hump. As Rose is recapping his own journey through school, one thing stood out to me. He is a way better student than he gives himself credit for. When he can't grasp Math or Grammar he blames himself, not his teachers or school system. He said that he often daydreams, in class but he never said that the teachers offered him extra support. Just like Bobby and his girlfriend needed extra support in UCLA, Rose needed extra support growing up in his studies too. When we first start reading we're introduced to Laura who is afraid of failure too, and one thing seems common. They all feel inadequate because of their lack of knowledge on things that are new to them because America is fairly new to them. We never give people the time to adjust, we just start teaching them, throwing tests at them and calling them illiterate and dumb when they fail. In the United States we have a clear negative perception of people we deem "outsiders" and therefore we often give them the short end of the stick.

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John Cronin
2/11/2021 08:50:25 am

One big idea I took away from the three chapters was a fear of failure within students. One of the first examples is brought up when he talks about Laura who has dropped his class five times because she is scared of failing. In one of the later chapters Mike Rose brings up some of his own experience with facing his failures. This is when he mentions how he didn't ask for help due to not wanting to look stupid. This fear is unfortunately something that seems to be present in all students no matter their educational level. I remember back to high school when I would get "See me after class" written in red ink on my papers. I would. never go because my mindset was "I don't want to go get told why I'm stupid." Obviously this wouldn't have been what happened but that was my mindset behind the idea of getting help.

Later in the book Mike Rose brings Bobby who is a student at UCLA who is struggling to feel like he belongs at school. Rose goes on to relate this to his own experience in chapter two. Both Rose and Bobby have felt inadequate in school just because they aren't doing well in a certain aspect of school. The reality is that they are just struggling with a class and all they both needed was help and guidance.

The final point I am going to pull from the book comes from the final part of his preface. Rose quotes social historians David Cohen and Barbara Neufeld. They talk about how people will often look at the illiterate problem with fear and look into the past for answers that aren't there. They talk about how looking to a past that never was often causes teachers to create curriculum that doesn't help the problem. Therefore the educational system seems to be in a constant loop of freaking out and then repeating the same mistakes that brought us to the illiteracy we have now.

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Sydney Silverman
2/11/2021 08:04:21 pm

As I continued to read lives on the boundary, I found myself relating to the protagonist more and more. The story most certainly concludes the idea that schools almost scare their students into believing that their writing cannot be less than perfect.This element in the school system has undoubtedly driven students to become perfectionists, myself included, but also has enlisted pure fear of failure. I am certain that if almost every student at some point in their academic lives, is afraid to admit when they are struggling. This fear is not only driven by academic failure, but also embarrassment among their peers. As far as the story goes, both Bobby and Rose have felt this fear and inadequacy of their place in school. This brings up another question on this topic, Do teachers feel concerned ONLY for their student's academic success? Or do they sincerely want to help their students succeed at their own pace. Every student has their own pace to move at and it is not far to judge them for learning differently. I think this was the point that Rose was trying to make about the school systems today

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Sara McNaughton
2/15/2021 06:36:58 am

Hi Sydney!
Your post stuck out to me, as it brought up some points that hit close to home. Similar to what you said, I too was (and still may be) a perfectionist when it comes to school work. Your connection between the reading and this concept was spot on. To try and answer your questions, I believe that there are some teachers who are only concerned with academic success. As much as there are teachers like that, I know there are many who are challenging that notion and making a change for the better. One way to help students with their fear about asking for help could be the implementation of SEL (social emotional learning) in the classroom. SEL exercises/ activities work to help students communicate their feelings, understand their emotions, build relationships (etc.). Likewise, we can help change this fear by moving the focus away from grades in the classroom. I know that is not an easy change, but I am sure it can be done. Just some thoughts! Your post was very insightful.

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Marie-Elizabeth Sholes
3/2/2021 06:00:51 pm

The first big takeaway from Rose's story comes right at the beginning of the book, the very first page when he talks about Laura in remedial English, she is a girl who has dropped the class already multiple times in two years and is explaining why, "I get in there, and everything seems okay. But as soon as we start writing, I freeze up. I'm a crummy writer, I know it. I know I'm gonna make lots of mistakes and look stupid. I panic. And I stop coming" (Rose 1). This moment highlights a painfully common trend among students: Fear. Laura isn't by any means stupid, rather she's terrified that she'll mess up, this is something I know all too well, throughout my student life I've had thoughts that I'm gonna fail and everyone will see what an idiot I am and I've given up too, It haunts students and negatively affects the development of their abilities to read and to write.
My second takeaway came from the same chapter about the panic at the perceived literacy decline, and how attempts to compensate for that decline have an adverse effect on the student being taught. Schools are so obsessed in filling in the gap that they fail to notice the students who are falling into it, "What gets lost in all this are the real needs of children and adults working to make the written language their own" (Rose 8) Schools teach increasingly toward higher test scores and that means teaching that there is only one way to write a paper, and people who can't write that way get left behind and fall through the cracks often just being pushed along from one grade the the next struggling to keep up in a race designed to keep them from winning.
The last thing that really caught my attention was from the second chapter, where Rose talks about his own experience with the education system and his relationship with classes that he struggled to understand "What I remember best strangely are the two things I couldn't understand and over the years grew to hate: grammar lessons and mathematics" (Rose 18) it's very common for students to resent the things that are difficult for them to navigate, especially when they lack sufficient help. Rose also mentions that he began daydreaming to escape those lessons, which is another common coping mechanism used to deal with things that students find intimidating, I spent years sleepwalking through English classes and doing everything in my power to avoid having to read, once I started getting the help I needed I started to thrive. All students need in order to learn is support from their teachers.

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