Mark Rose

Mark Rose describes his educational experience through his years of vocational classes. His classes were more known for kids who don’t take education seriously, therefore the teachers teaching vocational classes didn’t either. He mentions the different kids he has met and explains their stories. For example, Dave Snyder was a track super star but his studies weren’t so good, yet he was still respectful to teachers. Or Ken Harvey who caught Mark’s attention by discussing religious facts and Ken happened to be chosen to answer a question. Ken responded with “I just want to be average.” Mark notices Ken say average and not the word perfect.
Mark also mentions his troubles at home with his father fighting a disease called arteriosclerosis. As if dealing with vocational school wasn’t enough, his father dies due to continuous health problems. Life at the moment wasn’t going well but then one day Mark was inspired by a teacher named Jack Macfarland. Mark’s first impression of him wasn’t pleasing; Jack looked as if he slept in his own car. But they way jack presented himself was totally different from how he teaches. He would assign multiple essays a month, he had his students reading a new book every 2 weeks, and he would test his students every other day on the material they were assigned to read. This type of education was different to Mark. But Mark ended up enjoying receiving good grades and understood more of why some kids take getting good grades as such a big deal. Because of jack, Mark was turned into a new person.