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Summary Of I Just Wanna Be Average By Mike Rose

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In the article “I Just Wanna Be Average”, Mike Rose describes about the changes that occurred in his life by undertaking challenges in achieving an education. Mike Rose was a smart kid who was accidentally placed in lower division classes due to mixing of placement test results between two students with similar names. Instead of complaining about it, he deals with whatever he was offered with. Mike Rose describes his school as a "a place for those who are just not making it, a dumping ground for the disaffected." There were times when he had to drop his level down just to be on the same level as other kids were. But he realized that people saw him in a different manner as compared to other kids above his section. The teachers were unqualified, …show more content…

Rose states that some of the kids were dedicated and hardworking, whereas the rest slacked off. Once Rose asked one of his classmate Ken Harvey is regarding his views about achievement in life. He ended up saying “ just wanna be an average”. The word Average got stuck in Rose’s mind and it made Rose admire Ken. For Rose being average is what a few of the kids want to be, unfortunately they are not able to reach that level. The reason behind it was lack of faith and inspiration, that ultimately led up being failures. Later in his sophomore year, he was deviated on a different route, not willing to give attention to his studies yet ended up acing the tests in Biology class. His teacher tried verifying the placement results if something was wrong or not and finally realized him being put in a wrong section. Suddenly, he was asked to get started with the college prep. Then he met Prof Mac Farland, his English teacher. He motivated Rose, and pushed hard to get him back into the studies. Mr. Farland became his role model and the ultimate reason behind his

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