Mike Rose essay 2

Mike Rose's essay is so far my favourite reading in this class, it hits home for me. His description of his school and his experience in it reminds me so much of my own school. The separation of "slow learners" and the "elite students" is too common an attribute of schools in the United States, as this also took place in my high school in New York. I was in the "Advanced Placement" and "Honours" classes throughout my jr. high and high-school experience, of course I was always only after that extrinsic reward of receiving an "A", and I wonder now, after reading Rose's essay, if I truly learned enough.
My high school, like many American schools I imagine, was driven to achieve academic excellence. Standardized tests and "advanced placement" were pushed on students like a lemon juicer and we were the lemons. In order to get more funding for the school, it had to be ranked high in academic excellence. Similar to Mike Rose's experience in high school, many student fell through the cracks and the education was impersonal.
In my experience teachers do not take personal interest in their students, they may have after school homework help hours but they do not invite students to their house or hang out with them outside of school. I did have only one teacher who took a personal interest in me. He was my older sister's teacher the year before and then also had my younger sister in his class two years after me. He became pretty close with my family only because he had all three of us as his students. He is a great example of a good teacher, his after school hours were extended beyond other teachers' hours and he was very personable with students.