Instructions
Keeping in mind what Rose argued about non-traditional and middle class students in p. 81-97 of Back to School, write a reflection where you discuss your journey with education, focusing on the challenges you encountered and the resources you had at your disposal.
Think about events and situations that made it harder for you to do well in school, but also what resources made it possible for you to overcome these difficulties and pursue a college education.
Please organize your reflection as follows.
Begin with an introductory paragraph where you introduce the idea that according to Rose, academic success is harder for some students than it is for others, and explain how he supports this point. Your explanation must include a reference to the notion of “non-traditional students” and a discussion of what Rose means by that.
In the second paragraph, discuss what the term “non-traditional student” means to you, personally. Do you identify as a non-traditional student? Why or why not? You are welcome to state that you identify just in part with this term, but you will still need to explain why.
In the third paragraph, discuss the most important challenges you faced in your school career. You are welcome to make connections with Rose’s observations, but you are also welcome to write about difficulties he didn’t mention. The more specific you can be, the better. You are welcome to write more than one paragraph.
In the fourth paragraph, discuss what resources made it possible for you to overcome these challenges. You are welcome to make a connection with Rose’s observations, but you can also write about resources he didn’t mention. For example, you can be mention a teacher, a counselor, a program, a family member, or something inside of you that pushed you to get through these difficulties because you envisioned a better future for yourself. Again, the more specific you can be the better. You are welcome to write more than one paragraph.
Your grade will be determined by the following criteria:
Development: does your response provide enough details for the reader to get a sense of what your journey with education was like? Personal, specific examples will go farther than generalizations. I expect to see at least four paragraphs.
Organization: are details arranged in an order that makes it easy for the reader to follow your discussion? Do all the paragraphs focus on one idea? Are there unnecessary repetitions?
Language/sentence structure/clarity: can your sentences be easily understood? Are there obvious grammar, spelling, punctuation, word choice errors?
As always, your work must be submitted as a word document through this link before the deadline.