"I Just Wanna Be Average" Summary and Analysis

In “I Just Wanna Be Average,” Mike Rose talks about his experience of when he mistakenly got placed in the vocational track in high school. In the vocational track, Rose began to learn dead end skills because his knowledge was superior to the material taught in class, also because his teachers were often unprepared and unqualified.Over the course of the next few years in the vocational track, Rose lost his motivation and gave up. He believes that being a “vocational” student means that he is excluded from everyone else. Then a student in class, Ken Harvey, said something that stood out to Rose: “I just wanna be average.” That phrase stayed with Rose throughout the years, but he did not know what it meant until he was grown. In college prep, Rose met Mr. MacFarland, who changed his life. Rose’s Biology teacher finally caught the mistake that Rose was placed in the wrong class. In the higher up class, Mr. MacFarland realized Rose’s hidden potential and helped him get into a four year university, which slowly put him back in track for the learning environment. Rose has come to succeed and still to this day looks up to Mr.MacFarland as a role model.

Mike Rose shared his story about his time in the vocational track to show the reason why students fail. The school system uses various placement tests to place students in classes according to the knowledge they already have. However, students that slip through the cracks, like Mike Rose, stay in lower division classes for a while and lose motivation from boredom. Students sit around in class being taught material that the school district requires from teachers with no incentives. Students have no respect for teachers that do not know what they are doing, so they end up fooling around in class. “Spanish was a particularly rowdy class, and Mr. Montez was as prepared for it as a doily maker at a hammer throw. He would tap his pencil to the room in which Steve Fusci was propelling spitballs from his heavy lips…” We find faulty in our education system, that can be easily fixed by simply hiring qualified educators who can teach and catch mistake before it is too late. Mike Rose shared his experience in this story to show how someone can impact your life when you least expect it. Rose was lucky to encounter Mr. MacFarland, who showed Rose a whole new perspective to learning.  Mr. MacFarland stepped into his life and changed everything. He taught Rose to aim for not just “average,” but above and beyond.