The ed narrative I liked best was Mike Rose's "I Just Wanna Be Average". In his story telling manner, he captures my attention from the first sentence. He has a sense of humor that keeps me captivated and makes me laugh. For example when he talks about Bill Cobb and Johnny Gonzales who were "grease-pencil artists extraordinaire, who left Nembutal-enhanced swirls of "Cobb" and "Johnny" on the corrugated walls of the bus". The picture immediately comes to my mind and I "see it".
His example of how he got selected to be part of the vocational education group of kids and the way he described his teachers, Brother Dill, "a troubled and unstable man". Another one that stuck out was Mr. Montez "a tiny man, slight, five foot six at the most, soft-spoken and delicate."
Out side of his humor and descriptiveness, he has depth and a point to make that brings it back to the title "I Just Wanna Be Average" with Ken Harvey who was "gasping for air". It shows that the kids were trying to survive in the world of vocational education, while they were "trying to shape an identity, your body is changing, and your emotions are running wild".
This helped me to see into their inner beings and the struggles kids have in school and getting through school with their peers, teachers and themselves.. My heart goes out to them, then and now.
Excellent work on the blog, Gerry! You've done a great job of digging into the texts and developing ideas in this first three weeks--keep up the good work!
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