One Sided Education: Does Equality Really Exist?

One Sided Education: Does Equality Really Exist?

Education is a well known controversial topic. Mike Rose, author of "Lives on the Boundary", discusses the issues on "canonical curriculum" and its lack of accommodation. He feels the government is "in the middle of an extraordinary social experiment; the attempt to provide education for all members of a vast pluralistic democracy". He conveys this message to his readers with a serious tone in the first person providing an indispensible view to the actual thoughts and perceptions of a student who was considered to be inadequately prepared by using ethos, pathos, and logos to further persuade his audience.

Education should be equal for everyone. Glitches in the educational system make it exhaustive for certain students to learn what is being taught. Rose states, "The canonical orientation encourages a narrowing of focus from learning to that which must be learned..." He continues, "The students' personal history recedes as to what of the classroom is valorized over the how" (Rose100).Many people come from different backgrounds and are unaccustomed to the way of going about getting the most out of their education. This alone is where ethos; the emotional appeal comes into play. On the other hand, some students are faster or slower learners, others are stronger in certain subjects and not others, and many have no interest in these specific studies or the way in which they are taught. A result of this, students start to slack off from the curriculum due to the fact that the teachers or professors couldn't get through to them. Rose feels that many students are overlooked and something needs to be done about it.

By reading Lives on the Boundary, a new teacher may be able to recognize the struggles that a student is facing due to physical and psychosocial changes. Rose feels that a positive relationship with the teacher and the student equals a good education. He states, "It simplifies the dynamic tension between student and text and reduces the psychological and social dimensions of instruction" (Rose 100). Based on this quote, Rose simply means if a student is having difficulty with any curriculum that is being taught, they won't have to deal with the issues alone, they can have someone to turn to when the tension starts to take effect. He uses logos and pathos to explain the feelings of a struggling student and disperses a logical way to deal with situation of a student getting the help that they need.

Rose further goes on in his essay by using ethos and pathos to further explain the circumstances of immigrants and their disadvantages with learning American curriculum to better their lives in another country. He uses the credibility and real life experiences from immigrants in his article to give an emotional appeal as well as show his reader the