A Rhetorical Précis: “I Just Wanna be Average” by Mike Rose

Mike Rose, in his anecdotal essay on education, describes not only the problems with Vocational Education, but the effects it has on kids who spend their entire educational career in voc. Ed. (as he calls it), as well as those who, like himself, get high enough scores on standardized tests to take higher-level classes. He illustrates these points by describing coping mechanisms that kids develop to make up for their lack of a real education as well as those for the knowledge that they are in the bottom of the class and will be for the rest of their lives. Instead of receiving a higher education than average to make up for their learning disabilities, they receive a less-than-average education from under-qualified teachers. Rose’s purpose, therefore, is to bring to light the problems with this program and others like it to try to catalyze some change. He adopts a tone dripping with sarcasm and true passion for his cause.

 

 

1)      Vocab

a.       spate—a sudden, overwhelming outpouring

b.      miscellany—a miscellaneous collection of unrelated items

c.       disaffected—discontented and disloyal

d.      somnambulant—of sleepwalking (adj.)

e.       dearth—scarcity

f.        apocryphal—of questionable authorship or authenticity

g.       platitudinous—tiresome with pretenses of significance

 

2)      Rhetorical Devices

a.       Epigram—“I just wanna be average.”

b.      Catharsis—“Let me try to explain how it feels to see again and again material you should once have learned but didn’t.”

c.       Extended metaphor—“Students will float to the mark you set. I and the others in the vocational classes were bobbing in pretty shallow water…us kids who were scuttling along at the bottom of the pond….”

 

3)      Questions

a.       What does the author mean when he says “ The rides were long but were livened up by a group of South L.A. veterans whose parents also thought that Hope had set up shop in the west end of the country,”?

b.      How does the writer’s style interest the audience in what is possibly an otherwise topic?

c.       What can be done to remedy the problems in Vocational Education?

 

4)      “You are given a problem. It requires you to simplify algebraic fractions or to multiply expressions containing square roots. You know this is pretty basic stuff because you’ve seen it for years. Once a teacher took some time with you and you learned how to carry out these operations. Simple versions, anyway. But that was a year or two in the past, and these are more complex versions, and now you’re not sure. And this, you keep telling yourself, is ninth- or even eighth-grade stuff.”

Jackie The Magnificent

note: this post is done in an emulation of the style of Annie Dillare in “Terwilliger Bunts One.” It is all my own writing and content.

 

            “Repeat after me, mes éleves. Raise the camels. Élever les chameux.” We all repeated dutifully after Madame Grimsdale. “Cultivate the wheat. Cultiver le blé.” Fewer students attempted to emulate the outlandish syllables this time around. “Milk the cow. Traire la vache.” I slide a side-glance at my sister, who, without the slightest care to the rest of the class, is flashing a delighted, mischievous grin my way. We simultaneously begin to mouth the words to a French children’s song, “Pas Capable de Triare Ma Vache.”

            My step-mother is Quebecois, so when my little brother was born, she got a CD of French children’s songs. The family favorite is about a cow that can’t be milked. Jackie and I sing it everywhere: on the chairlift (at the top of our lungs to see who will look up), going down the runs (except the super difficult ones), in the car (extra loud at red-lights), in line at the grocery store (to embarrass our father). We know the story by heart. The owner goes out to the stables to milk the cow, but she won’t be milked. The woe begotten owner bursts into tears and tries again, and this time, much to the delight of the owner, the cow produces hot-chocolate. “un bon (loud, obnoxious slurp)  chocolat-chaud.” It is impossible to slurp silently. It just can’t be done. The entire class turns to ogle at us, then dismiss it as a twin thing. One of the students went so far as to say “and you guys say you’re not telepathic.” Jackie and I busted into uncontrolled laughter. As soon as we caught our breath, Mrs. Grimsdale, not to be so astonishingly interrupted, said moving on, ma classe. Feed the chickens. Donner à manger aux poules.”

Terwilliger Bunts One: a Rhetorical Précis

Rhetorical Précis

Annie Dillard, in her reflection of her mother, demonstrates the reactions of the general public to her mother’s antics, and those of her mother to these reactions. Annie flaunts the reactions of her mother as well as the people she comes in contact with by creating a caricature of her mother and the situations that she thrusts people into with her awkward and uncomfortable epigrams. Her purpose is to illustrate the character of her mother and how she thrived by pushing at others’ comfort zones. She adopts a reflective, almost admiring tone of her mother for the readers of her memoir.

 

Vocabulary Words

Capping—to complete

Locutions—a style of speech or verbal expression

Eschewed—avoided

Sashayed—to strut of flounce in a showy manner

Deadpan—showing no expression (like stoic)

Dictum—a saying or maxim

Torpid—inactive or dormant

 

Rhetorical Strategies

Cliché—“we said ‘tele pole,’ pronounced ‘telly pole,’ …the sidewalks are ‘slippy.’ And            we said, as Pittsburghers do say, ‘this glass needs washed,’ or ‘the dog needs           walked.’”

Stream-of-consciousness—“I was doomed. It was fatal to say ‘everyone says so.’ We all         knew well what happened.”

Empathy—“anyone who met her verbal challenges she adored…this pat scenario bored            her; she loved having it interrupted. It mush have galled her that her       acquaintances were so predictably unalert…at any rate, she loved anyone who, as            she put it, saw it coming, and called her on it.”

 

Questions

—Why did her mother feel the need to keep people on their toes?

—How does Annie Dillard emphasize her mother’s antics without the use of hyperbole?

—Do you agree with the mother’s view of people’s level of alertness? 

 

Quotation

“During a family trip to the Highland Park Zoo, Mother and I were alone for a minute. She approached a young couple holding hands on a bench by the seals, and addresses the young man in dripping tones: ‘Where have you been? Still got those baby-blue eyes; always did slay me. And this’—a swift nod at the dumbstruck young woman, who had removed her hand from the man’s—‘must be the one you were telling me about. She’s not so bad, really, as you used to make her out. but listen, you know how I miss you, you know where to reach me, same old place. and there’s Ann over there—see how she’s grown? See the blue eyes?’

            and off she sashayed, taking me firmly by the hand, and leading us around briskly past the monkey house and away. She cocked an ear back, and both of us heard the desperate man begin, in a high-pitched wail, “I swear, I never saw her before in my life…’”

The Prioritized Approach

I don’t have any idea of what would be a good solution. All I know is that inaction is not an option. We have to do something, or we might have a Great Depression on our hands. I think that the bailout was maybe a good option, if we could have been successful, if we could have made it work. That’s the problem, though. There were no guarantees, and we could have been left in an even worse position than before. I think the bailout was a good place to start, but it needs some work, some way to give some assurance that it won’t fall through.

Really, we should be focusing on what we need to fix: the national debt, the credit crisis, and the housing market. Then we need to prioritize them: the credit crisis, the housing crisis, and then the national debt. To fix the credit crisis, we need to teach people how to be responsible with their credit, that they can’t spend more than they have. We need to convince companies that they can’t keep selling to people who can’t afford it, and that the banks need to bring back the credit restrictions that they got rid of. For the housing market, I think that the bailout might have helped, but I also think that if we take care of the credit thing first, the housing market should follow with less help. As for the national debt, as much as I hate to say it, especially during this economic crisis, the only solution I can see is to raise taxes. I think that that isn’t the highest priority task to tackle, however, and once people are in better financial health, we can focus on the national debt. It’s definitely impacting our economy, but the government needs to take care of the people before they can take care of the government.

Meanest Mom on the Planet

Wow. I think that her intentions were good, and that her son did have a lesson to learn. It was a good idea. Rhetorically speaking. It was just a little of an overreaction, I think. I mean, selling her son’s car? There are so many other punishments that I could think of that would be more appropriate. The article calls it innovative. It’s just immature to me. It seems like the kind of reaction you would get from a kid who found that his sister had put make-up on his GI-Joe. It’s just not very well thought out.

What really got on my nerves, though, was the mother’s reaction. She said that she never intended to humiliate her son, but how could it not? And she didn’t even tell her son: he found out through a friend who had seen the ad and called the number. That just adds to the immature act, making it even more so. I think it was a bad decision made by an angry mom.

My accomplishments for junior year…hopefully!

This year is going to be pivotal for me, not only academically, but also in terms of personal growth. I will obviously be planning for college and trying to pad my resume and put even more effort into my school work, but I also have a lot of thinking to do about where my life is headed.

My first goal is to get my resume in order. I need to get as many extra curriculars as I can fit, stay on top of my homework, get even more extra volunteer hours, and start looking at where to apply for school. I am way set on volunteer hours, so I should be good there if I want to cut that out, but I am sorely lacking in extra currics, and I really need to get it figured out. I was considering trying to start up the Snow Rider’s Club again, which would be a great way to show responsibility, leadership, perseverance…a lot of traits that colleges and universities will be looking for. I want to appear well-rounded, so I think I will join French Club, as well, and maybe a sport, if I can get in shape. And, of course, I am taking three AP classes this year, which should speak for them if I stay on top of my homework.

Other than that, I want to focus on having a good time and enjoying my last years in high school. I get my license in a little over a month (still a year late…but I’m getting over it), so I will have a lot more freedom to do the things that I need or want to do. I’m going to do more with my friends and hole up in my home less. I’m also planning on spending more time with my parents, because I only have two more years before I graduate and go to college. I’m going to appreciate them (or at least the free food) more and not take them for granted.

Actually, not take anything for granted. Maybe that should really be my biggest goal, not to take anything for granted. To look at the world as if I will die tomorrow. That way I’ll really see the beauty in everything, be happier in general. Maybe I’ll do more, experience more, live more. I want to start to teach myself how to live.