Education Is The Foundation Of The Smartest People Of All Time

In Richard Rodriguez “Scholarship Boy” the audience notices several tensions throughout his experiences; and how they affect his upbringing to become the man he is today. Rodriguez’s two most important levels of tension were, his homelife home where he separates himself from his family while feeling a form of anger towards them. Rodriguez distances himself from his peers despite his educational success, nevertheless he thrives in his studies in the classroom. Since he is so dedicated on his studies he lacks time to interact with them because his free time is spent reading.

With only a grade school education, Ana and Marcelino Franco came to America penniless and told their kids that their only job was “to obtain an education because it is the key to your future.”

Eventually Richard Rodriguez develops bitterness towards his parents. For being uneducated and ignorant, His thirst for knowledge has transformed him into someone who holds a distain for those without knowledge or esteem. Then he transforms into someone who feels guilt over his success. His family life has turned into an atypical situation where there is very little closeness between him and the other members of his family. This is caused by his increasing want to distance himself from what he believes to be uneducated.

When reading this autobiography it reminded me of my adolescent years; I remember feeling like I knew all there was to being a grown up, I also felt like my parents didn’t know much because they didn’t go to college. I strongly feel like they could have always done more than they were doing. Upon reading this, I felt as though I was reading Richard Rodriguez’s journal and he was a very unhappy kid living in the ghetto. He was also embarrassed of his own life and he seemed unhappy in his own skin... “(Ways of reading pg.339) A primary reason for my success in the classroom was that I couldn’t forget that success was changing me and separating me from the life I enjoyed before becoming a student”.

His mother told her children to do this when she was demoted at her job and no longer able to move further in her career, Rodriguez later remembered she said this and thought, with an education she could have done whatever she wanted to do. Rodriguez tacitly wished his parents were educated and resembled, in personality, his teachers. Thus, leading him to want to be a teacher. “I wanted to be like my teachers...to

The particular focus of Rodriguez’s story is that in order to feel like he belonged to the “public society” he had to restrict his individuality. Throughout his story, Rodriguez discussed such topics as assimilation and heritage. He goes into depth about the pros and the cons of being forced to assimilate to the American culture. Growing up Hispanic in America was a struggle for Rodriguez. This was due to the fact that he was a Spanish-speaking boy living in an English-speaking society, and he felt like he was different than the other children. Rodriguez writes, “I was fated to be the ‘problem student’ in class” (Rodriguez 62). This is referring to Rodriguez’s improper knowledge of English. It made him stand out as the kid that was behind. He wanted to find the balance between the public and private face. He believed both were important to develop. As I read this story it changed the way I looked at people who speak different languages, and how it must be hard to fit in with society if you are not all fluent in English.

Rodriguez initially uses Hoggart’s book to categorize and describe his own experience as a student. Once he reads Hoggart’s work he finally feels that he has identified himself. He recognizes the separation of home and school and how it is necessary to have this separation to become the type of student he desires, an elite student. Separation from his family and culture is necessary because Rodriguez sees the two as separate worlds. He must be removed from his original culture and family life to achieve the scholarly elite status. He had to devote himself to his studies, which leaves him no time for a family. After Rodriguez claims himself a to be an elite student, he justifies the steps he took in

With all the negative thoughts and feelings about his family, Rodriguez never took the time to repair his relationship with him and his family, because books were very important to him than his family. As Rodriguez begin to separate from his family and culture, his Spanish accent also begin to disappear, which he felt very excited. In the beginning of his article he talked about the first day, he enters the class and could “barely able to speak English” (239). Rodriguez felt that he did not fit in with the rest

Although a majority of my family are college graduates from Peruvian universities, few graduated from universities in the United States. A bachelor’s degree has become common ground in my family. I wish to pursue a graduate degree to set a high standard for my future children to follow. My Peruvian and Chicano culture has greatly influenced the value of education. For me education is not just considered to be knowledge, but instead extends to the daily

Rodriguez talks about how in America a person is encourage to stray away from the family and venture out and become their own man. In Kincaid´s essay she discusses how her mother was the worst, and that how that changed her. Which is the main similarity, Rodriguez grew up in an immigrant family, where the child´s life goal is to surpass his parents. Rodriguez writes,

Imagine a world where whites weren’t offered education. Not just the world, imagine instead if whites here in America, weren’t given access to quality education. The visionary and ethical leader this paper will discuss broke the barrier to quality education for the Latino Community.

Education is the key to individual opportunity, the strength of our economy, and the vitality of our democracy. In the 21st century, this nation cannot afford to leave anyone behind. While the academic achievement and educational attainment of Hispanic Americans has been moving in the right direction, untenable gaps still exist between Hispanic students and their counterparts in the areas of early childhood education, learning English, academic achievement, and high school and college completion.

In his essay “The Achievement of Desire,” Richard Rodriguez has certain ways of speaking and caring. In particular, he focuses on his education and his family. These two will eventually clash and interfere with each other. Rodriguez contrasts school, family, teachers and most importantly himself. He also tells us how left his childhood and family for education, but when he wanted to return he couldn’t fully do so. He learned he couldn't fully return due to his conforming to education that leads him to observe and analyze everything.

The younger son, Richard Rodriguez, wrote his story of growing up and being educated in his family. He explains, very early in his life education change him and brought upon him. School focus his to speak only English, his parents encouraged him becoming an educated person and they pushed him to work hard at school. At the same time his parents didn’t want him to forgot his language and culture. After that he challenge himself, speak more English than Spanish until English become his primary language. The more he successes the less he connects with his family, this is a big effect his family life, his parents would feel so painful about his life had changed. In his reading see like he doesn’t happy with his successes.

Through the narrative “The Scholarship Boy” I find few turning points that I notice a shift in the demeanor of Richard Rodriguez as well as how I perceive the story. First of all, it is made apparent to me that people acknowledge him for his successes by making remarks such as, “Your parents must be proud” or “How did you manage it? According to the opening paragraphs Rodriguez is seen as a model student. Although this may be true, the first turning point I find suggests otherwise as Rodriguez conveys, “For although I was a very good student, I was also a very bad student…Always successful, always unconfident. Exhilarated by my process. Sad.” This quote changed my perspective of Rodriguez because of the negative emotion he expresses toward his family. By the same token, I recall my sister being an outstanding achiever throughout school, yet, she was similarly depressed as well as annoyed towards me and the rest of our family. This flashback assisted me in relating to Rodriguez’s emotions towards his successes. In the same fashion, I am supplied a grasp of his shift in tone and direction in the narrative.