Community and Learning
Lives on the Boundary is an educational autobiography by Mike Rose. The book begins at the beginning of his life and follows him into and throughout his adult years. The book focuses on the struggles and achievements of America’s educationally disadvantaged and underprivileged. Rose’s community has played a major part in his life, not only in his educational upbringing but also in his career as teacher. Community is a group sharing common characteristics and interests. It is often perceived as being distinct in some respect from the larger society in which the community exists. There were several communities that were influential in shaping Rose’s education, including the neighborhoods he lived, his peers as well as the educational communities he experienced. In his early life and community, Mike Rose was born in 1944 in Altoona, Pennsylvania. His parent’s were Italian immigrants and built Rose’s first set of community for him. They were hard working parent’s who wanted a better life for him. They then moved to South Los Angeles where he began his middle school and high school education.
The classroom becomes the main community that will prove to be instrumental in Rose’s education. Rose’s story shows the need to improve education and literacy in America by examining the classroom where primary education towards literacy takes place. Teachers are the leaders of the classroom/education community. Rose had many teachers both good and bad that played to be instrumental in his development. They include teachers from grammar school through out his college career. All in one way or another have left a considerable imprint on his recollection of learning and the classroom community. From Brother Dill who used corporal punishment to Mr. MacFarland who stepped in when his father passed away and gave him encouragement, all shaped his educational community and provided the context he would use when he began his own teaching...