I just want to be average

In Mike Rose's story I just want to be average it was a story I could in a way relate to. I have always had a problem in math classes, and I would just sit there and say if I can just pass I would be okay. I had to have help by my friend who could do math as easy as 1,2,3. So she taught me to buckle down, and showed me that I didn't have to settle for average.
One thing I noticed in Rose's story is that when he is talking about his classes that the students, nor the teachers really want to be there. It took me back to what Gatto talked about in his story Against School. The students were wild, and did not care about learning. Also, the teachers would sit there, or not be into the subject they were teaching. An example I noticed was when Rose was talking about his English teacher how he would just have the read the same book over and over again until the end of the semester. So I can see how hard it could be to not do well in school, and not try to be more than average.