Mike Rose By Maya Angelou Analysis

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Expectations Many scholars study the history of education in the United States, but it is Maya Angelou and Mike Rose, with their personal narratives found in 75 Readings across the curriculum, describe the injustice and failure of the system. Maya Angelou’s “Graduation” (199) examines the education system’s racial discrimination and Angelou’s personal growth. On the other hand, Mike Rose’s “I Just Wanna Be Average” (211) sheds light on troubled youth “all kinds of kids from all kinds of backgrounds” (222), and how these kids are not expected to succeed. These two essays point to a broken education system and expose human nature, both at its highest and lowest points. However, it also shows their resilience and strength in overcoming adversity. Discrimination is present in both essays; Maya Angelou’s essay reveals a clear illustration of the luxuries the white schools in the forties had; this is apparent during the speech of a “Mr. Edward…show more content…
Rose’s teachers were a nightmare; from an abusive homeroom teacher “he would lose control and shake or smack us” to an English professor who had little training in the subject. In Angelou’s essay, the problem is with the injustice of the system, there was no support from the government, but they had support from the community, unlike Rose. Rose was a mediocre student at best “I developed further into a mediocre student and a somnambulant problem solver, and that affected the subjects I did have the wherewithal to handle” he just did things to get by; there was no real connection with his studies. Angelou was an honors student, her “academic work was among the best of the year,” marked differences that only point to a system that does not recognize greatness, in Angelou because of the color of her skin, in Rose because of an administrative error; a confusion with another Rose; a placement test that categorized him as
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