The Politics of Remediation by Rose - Essay Example

Introduction By means of narrative and autobiography, Lives on the Boundary create a rich argument on the education potential of all students. The book traces out the author’s own educational encounters as the child of immigrants in a Los Angeles ghetto, as an outsider and finally as a university writing instructor. Citing examples from the students he came across a tutor and teacher as well as from his own schooldays, Rose explores the terminology of failure evident in terms like “deficient” and “remedial”. He also exposes many of the detrimental assumptions relating to culture, class and student potentiality that plague the American classrooms. Writing in the first person, Rose defies the traditional political and cultural associations relating to personal achievement to insist that the narrative of an individual’s life is both the product and process of surrounding social and educational narratives. In this article, I will feature the title both metaphorically and literally. The American education institutions are diverse in culture and population. In almost all institutions, one will find themselves surrounded by African, African American, Hispanic, Cantonese, and Asian among other students. Also to be considered is the economic vantage and disadvantage of the student in question, their esteem levels, the parental control as well as the will by the student. Being an African student, I can relate to Rose’s experiences. Coming from a culture that does not value education in general, it was hard to enter into a classroom. Being a girl added insult to injury. Growing up, my going to school was not debatable. I will begin by giving you a glimpse into a traditional Maasai homestead. A girl is supposed to get married as soon as she “graduates” into a woman. The graduation is marked by pomp and color, after which one undergoes female genital mutilation (FGM). Additionally, culture and family (save for my mother) did not support my dreams or care to provide a conducive environment for my studies, the call was inherent and evident. I loved education and dreamt of being a writer despite the many hurdles and bleak future ahead. Like Rose, my education journey has been a long way coming. Miraculously, I was able to swim my way through high school and won a scholarship to study in the United States. Now came the freshman experience in foreign soils. The alienation and the loneliness was enough to dampen my spirits. In “The Politics of Remediation”, Rose discusses these feelings. The experience was more or less the same for me. The huge lecture halls, the distance from the professor, the streams of students you don’t know will only compound your sense of loneliness and the incessant thoughts that after all those years of learning you may not be equal to the task at hand (Rose 174). The sense of isolation also comes if the loneliness you feel is rooted in the books and lectures that surround you, in the very language of the place. Like Rose, this feeling extends without the school environment to everywhere in the society. In my case, the term “language” is used metaphorically. It implies a totally different culture from which I grew up in and which am expected to fit in. In Mike’s college at Loyola, majority of the students came from upper middle class while he came from the lower social class of South Vermont. Like Rose, this economic difference only fuelled my desires to confine myself deeper within the barriers. While Mike did not join any academic or social clubs courtesy of feeling exclusive and a little strange, I was able to muster the strength to join one (Rose 43). As expected, my grades took a nose dive. But the inferiority complex and the intrinsic fear kept me from asking question and so they continued to stink. My experience was shared by my Hispanic friend whose limited English denied him many opportunities and he could only work as bar tender. As Rose observed, isolation in the society is common and is exhibited everywhere and along different lines, be they ethnic, cultural, social and racial divides. For example, it is quite common to see and find men sleeping in gutters down town, immigrants facing unique problems and college students struggling with an unforgiving college atmosphere. Such encourages students to get to a comfort zone of being average. As Rose observed in Lives chapter “I Just Wanna is Average”, I can agree that the persistent posting of low grades, especially for a student who had been used to recording high grades, is exhausting and detrimental to the mind and spirit. This experience is shared by most students, especially the emigrants and those that are culturally alienated. Ironically, native but poor performing students can also relate to this. Then the parental and societal expectations as Rose points out, the expectations can be too high you feel them strangle you. In his case, his parents were so involved in his education and tried to do anything possible to facilitate. As it is the common feeling among such people, education is viewed as the avenue that helps you achieve get into white collar jobs, improve the living standards of the whole family and raise your self-worth. This leads many parents to support their children, in the hope that they will be brilliant enough to achieve these educational goals. While the pressure can be beneficial, it is in most cases detrimental to the students. This saw Rose’s parents put him in the remedial regime. In my case, this was also inevitable. The negative psychological effects of such outweigh the positive. In the closing paragraph of Chapter 8 of Lives, entitled “Crossing Boundaries”, Rose advocates for an epistemological reorientation of the American education. I totally echo his sentiments on that. Here Rose points out that the mistakes made by students are a starting point and not necessarily a failure (Rose 238). By saying that students need to be encouraged to learn and not be instantly judged by their failures, he is trying to tell teachers and tutors to be in touch with their students. Students should not be pushed to do things they do not want. Instead, they should be encouraged to pursue their interests and talents. One of my fellow students despised law but found him taking it courtesy of his father. As he always said, he would complete this and get to interior which was what he wanted. Like Rose, many of us are pushed by our parents into a ruthless American education system. To put an end at this lives on the boundary, it will be prudent to adopt a democratic education system. This will ensure that all students regardless of culture, creed, race and geographical areas feel as much a part of the system as any other. The levels and sense of alienation will also reduce for all the students who have issues with that. My opinion on the matter is that the trick would be to improve on all the degenerate factors and marry them with the existing ones promoting a viable learning environment. Work cited Rose, Mike. Lives on the Boundary. Penguin Books: New York.1997. Read More