Introduction
This essay discusses the title question and the supplementary question arising from it: do schools and/or students foster or reject this attitude? The referenced source – a chapter from “Lives on the Boundary” by Michael Rose, offers some insight into the school life of a student (Michael Rose) thrust into a class of under-achievers, and describes how they approached their educational opportunities.
The Meaning of Being Average
In this context, being average means to be neither top of the class or grade nor conversely one of those struggling along at the bottom. An unkind person might perhaps describe that as being of mediocre ability, whereas another – more charitable – view might be to describe such an ability as “satisfactory” or adequate”. Other synonyms of average include: “ordinary” and “middling.”
In the school environment, being average may be interpreted as being very good at some subjects but poor in others. For example, a person might excel at scientific subjects and math, whilst lacking ability in the arts and languages, but on average does reasonably well. Thus wanting to be average means to neither want to excel nor to fail. It is difficult to imagine why anyone would want to be average, other than perhaps to remain unnoticed in the crowd, unless the person concerned was below average and would be content to be just a little better.
Do Schools Foster or Reject The Goal of Being Average?
It is in the interests of head teachers and staff for any public high school for the students to achieve better results overall – not just for any personal or job satisfaction reasons, but also to raise the school in the school district, state, or national rankings. Having said that, if teachers are truly dedicated to their craft, they will do their best to encourage every student to achieve the best of which they as individuals are capable. Although no doubt every one of us as students knows or can remember teachers for whom their work appears to be simply a job and who therefore may cause their subject to be perceived as dull, others exhibit high levels of motivation and through their own enthusiasm excite and interest their students to share that will to learn.
In terms of a school actually wanting to produce “average” students, that would perhaps apply only in the case of those students in the lower ability streams, where the teachers appreciate that the best they can do with the raw material presented to them is to work to drag those youngsters upwards as far as “average” level; i.e. realising that expecting those students to excel in school is an unrealistic goal.
For all other students it is more likely that any teacher worthy of their salary will actively encourage and foster any latent ability. Referring once again to job satisfaction, that must surely be felt when a teacher marks papers of students who have produced excellent work as a result of their teaching and motivating influence.
Do Students Foster or Reject The Goal of Being Average?
However, the vast majority of students want to succeed and to do better than their friends and classmates. Although Rose in his book states that “Students will float to the mark you set” implying that students will achieve no more than required, it should be remembered that human beings are competitive animals and have a natural instinct to win. There is also the situation that parents of the more able students (who are often even more competitive than their offspring) will be urging their son or daughter to do better and to work harder than everyone else.
In essence then, it is probable that a majority of students would reject the concept of merely wanting to be average, particularly if they have ambitions to enter a good college or university, looking ahead to ambitions in respect of a future career. All students know that those with better high school results stand more chance of gaining admission to a preferred university.
Conclusions
Being average at school (neither excelling nor failing completely) is acceptable to only a minority of students, especially to those who instinctively know they have little ability and can never hope to “shine” in any academic subjects. It is also true that some students who are content to just “jog along” at school but actually could do better if they really tried, will later in life regret what they then see as a missed opportunity to make more of those school years. However, most students and all schools do want to achieve the best results possible, thus by definition not accepting “average” outcomes.
Works Cited:
Rose, Mike. “I Just Wanna Be Average” A chapter from “Lives on the Boundary” ISBN-10: 0029268214 | ISBN-13: 978-0029268216. (1989). Web. 29 October 2012.
