"I just wanna be average"- Mike Rose

-Mike Rose's life in Voc.Ed was quite different from the standard school curriculum.

His Teachers did not seem to be driven to educate their students, and the students didn't have a strong drive to learn. Rose describes how un-controlled his Spanish 1 class when "...Billy lost it...I saw him strike out with his right arm and catch Dweetz across the neck" he also describes how his teacher wouldn't do much besides his constant "Metronomic tapping of Hector Montez's pencil"

The closest to a teacher from Mike's schooling would be Mr.Pasquas. Mr.Pasquas was our High school PE teacher down in Las Vegas. The extent of our Monday and Friday "fitness days" was to walk around the track the whole class. The teacher only taught this class so he could coach football at the high school.



-Voc.Ed was not the greatest place for Rose and his fellow students. Even though the students had various backgrounds, the result was not all ways the best on possible. The lack of caring from the teachers combined with the lack of focus from the students made it extremely hard for anyone to learn. This combination of students resulted in a sense of sadness that the students felt their curriculum was a "dead end." It was hard for Rose to catch up with math because of all the distractions from the students around him combined with him blaming it on not paying attention in elementary school.



-High school was disorienting for students like Ken Harvey for many reasons. In such a culturally diverse group of students where the hammer of judgment can strike in a moment’s notice can label you as a stupid or an intelligent individual. Ken is sent into a deep end pool where things can happen so quickly you won't realize it has all ready happened.

I don't think Ken has read much about Buddha and the middle way, but his philosophy seems similar to it. Ken feels that his way to cope with high school is to take the middle way; if he isn't labeled as stupid or nerdy then he can't complain. It seems Ken is trying to be "average.



-Can college be a disorienting place?

I feel that sometimes college can be a very disorienting place you find your way. For my personally I felt quite disoriented when I was going through all the paperwork for going to OC. but after a couple of weeks of school I seemed to find my way and it was very clear.



-My educational experience was in a way similar to Mike Rose’s.

I had to work with a variety of people from different backgrounds, whom had different opinions and beliefs. Although I Never had some of the problems that Rose had with fights and a "dead end" curriculum.