Mike Rose's "I wanna be average" autobiographical essay

In "I just wannabe Average," by Mike Rose, the term average doesn’t apply to students like the young mike rose and friends (kids of a working class background) as much as the average teachers at “Our Lady of Mercy,” whom "give skeletal outlines of world history,’ and manage the classroom like its the "parkinglot at the shrine auditorium". They were working class teachers teaching kids who needed extra guindance, not “low end” guidance. Their lesson plans do not set the bar high enough, and bring the day to day repetitiveness of working class boredom to the classroom. Teachers who are unable to cultivate success because they are not fully cultivated, not Masters of their subject yet – concerned about their world and not the world their students face, not creating business men out of pimps and drug dealers, artists out of taggers and interpreters out of bilingual students. When I hear the word "vocational"  I think of day time commercials that offer you careers in medical billing or computer graphic design that lead to a “low end” / “dead end” job. Brother Dill, Mr. Mitropetros, Young Brother Slattery taught like they took a four to six week course at Phoenix College. Yes - they had a degree or credential that qualified them for the job, but they were not qualified enough to work yet. I share a lot in common with them. I look  up to Jack MacFarland’s ability to see the importance of “teaching your heart out,” and being of service to a classroom culture that needed more help and was close to home. I put More negative than postive notes regarding the rose essay, but it was not really this depressing. It made me aware of how I am selling my self and others short in my own learning/teaching journey. the kind telling of mike'steachers before MacFaland presents the apathy of a teacher and the apathy of the student reinforcing the average expectations of eachother. they were human even though they sucked, but they teach us what not to do, so our presence is not dragged across the floor and thrown out the  window, or sadly pressured to self-deport..