Scholarship Boy By Richard Rodriguez Summary

Andrew Simmons published his article for The Atlantic, “The Danger of Telling Poor Kids that College is the Key to Social Mobility” on January 16, 2014, which raises his concerns that higher education is only being promoted as an opportunity to increase their economic status, when it should be an opportunity to experience an education (Simmons). Through the use of students such as Isabella, Simmons disagrees with the way students now look at higher education and blames the educators through the students’ lives for this view. Instead, Simmons views education as an intellectual opportunity rather than a way to elevate ones economic class which is all people see when they see “higher education.” He believes that education, ambition and work ethic is how you have a satisfying life, not with how much you make. He makes the point that when economics becomes the main goal of education it’s all children begin to think about and they might not pursue something that they are truly passionate about or what they want to learn about, which then does not create an intellectually awakening experience (Simmons).

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.

In Richard Rodriguez essay “Scholarship Boy,” he explores his past, now as a thirty year old man, and gives his readers a very well painted picture of what a scholarship boy truly is. Rodriguez mentions that from an early age he had put a boundary between his school and home life. However, it is worth mentioning that in his younger years he almost seemed to attempt to force both lives together. He mentions how he would constantly correct his parent’s grammatical errors, or tell them what he had learned in an effort to hurt their feelings. In this way he had taken on a superior attitude towards his parents and did his best to shame them into becoming the type of parents he had yearned for; the parental figures he had come to find in his teachers.

In the essay, Disliking Books at an Early Age, Gerald Graff talks about his transition from being displeased and uninterested in literature, to having intellectual discussions about it and even teaching it. He did not begin to enjoy reading until he had discussions about the books that he read, which showed him a different perspective. Overall, his essay explains how readers can only enjoy literature if they turn it into a social activity by freely interpreting and discussing the pieces they have read.

What this means is that the “scholarship boy” feels that due to the lack of education of his parents, he did not appreciate them for who they are, but instead admire his teachers because they can better educate him. Many might disagree with the fact that this boy feels this way of his parents and believe that he should admire his parents even if they are not capable of teaching him.

The text I know why the caged bird cannot read Francine Prose describes the reasons why high school students seem to dislike reading. She supports her idea with saying the problem starts with teaching moral values through literature, instead of teaching the value of literature itself. She also blames the education system that enforces these books to be placed in the curriculum. These books only focus on a reoccurring problem like racism religion or gender identity. And the curriculum works around that to teach the student right from wrong and moral values. Which puts the student on a path of hatred to literature.

Graff shares with us his personal experiences on how reading intellectually converted him from being street smart to book smart. Graff now urges colleges and schools to teach students the importance of reading intellectually as well as writing. "If I am right, then schools and colleges are missing an opportunity when they do not encourage students to take their nonacademic interests as objects of academic study. It is self defeating to decline to introduce any text or subject that figures to engage students who will otherwise tune out academic work entirely" (Graff, 270). By this, Gerald Graff means schools should encourage students to take their areas of interest and apply them to their education. All in hopes that students will one day feel comfortable enough to step outside

Lubrano explains how middle-class children understand the importance of receiving higher education, while working-class children fail to see the purpose of preparing for a higher level in the short term. According to Lubrano, “Middle-class kids are groomed for another life” (534). Author Patrick Finn states, “Working-class kids see no such connection, understand no future life for which digesting Shakespeare might be of value” (534). In answering this question, Lubrano must look at the various circumstances that account for the poor performances among working-class individuals, the supportive relationships middle-class students have with their parents and teachers, and how children of working-class parents struggle when preparing for later life. In the address, Alfred Lubrano must address the difference in treatment between working-class and middle-class children attending

Another big point in Prose’s essay is the assignments associated with high school literature. She argues that teachers make students write around the books and not about the books they read. “No wonder students are rarely asked to consider what was actually written by these hopeless racists and sociopaths. Instead, they’re told to write around the book, or, better yet, write their own books,” (430). The assignments that teachers give these days are nto about the book or the story itself. They usually ask the student to rewrite the ending, or ask what the student would do if they were in the same situation as the character. Prose argues that high school students are seen as having the same experience as some of the characters they read about, such as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. “And is it any wonder that

Prose assumes that most high school students do not read on their own and that students do not enjoy the literature they read in school; she also assumes that many students stop reading in their adult life and that what books students read in high school affect them for the rest of their lives.

In “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts” Alfred Lubrano uses his personal experience with college education and his parents to come up with the statement that “Every bit of learning takes you further from your parents". In his writing, he goes over how his eyes were first opened to the idea that school could bring you further from your parents, when he read a book titled “Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez”, where the writer was quoted as saying “Home life is in the now, school life exists on an altogether different lane, with an eye towards the future.” Alfred’s belief throughout his article is that school brings you to a reality that separates and distances you from your parents and home-life.

In his writing The Achievement of Desire, Richard Rodriguez describes his pursuit of academic achievement as a way to distance himself from his family as well as his cultural roots: “… A primary reason for my success in the classroom was that I couldn’t forget that school was changing me and separating me from the life

Education is an ongoing process that one can never escape form. Whether if it is in an educational institution, exploring a new topic in the news, or hearing about different cultures, global or local, education fails at being able to completely leave someone alone. However, an end of education also depends on how someone defines it. Rodriguez defines learning as a desire to escape. It is an escape from family by abstracting himself from normal family/home habits - “he takes his first step toward academic success, away from his family,” (page 341). It is an escape from the life everyone expects of him especially being from a working class family to excel beyond the primary education his parents have had set for him, “He cannot afford to admire his parents,” (page 341). This “habit of abstracting from immediate experience” encloses Rodriguez in his lonely environment that he once craved into a community where communication between a reader and writer is nonexistent. By doing so he makes education and learning a chore or a task to strain to be

Maintaining relationships and and focusing on who is important is one way in which I try to combat becoming Hoggart’s definition of a “scholarship boy.” Throughout the excerpt, Rodriguez keeps reiterating the fact that while his schooling grew more intense and successful, he “couldn’t forget that [it] was changing [him] and separating [him] from the life [he] enjoyed before becoming a student” (Rodriguez 534). When I was in high school, I had two major relationships I had to maintain: family and friends. With numerous extra curriculars, rigorous courses, and a part-time job, this was hard at times. According to Haley Bess, these difficulties constitute “the lows” of high school; however, “having to balance a busy schedule...helps you learn time management” (Bess 2,3). On the other hand, Rodriguez would “spend more and more time studying...enclosing himself in the silence permitted and required by intense concentration,” (Rodriguez 536) separating himself from his family. I remember moments in which my Mom or Dad inquired about my day at school, and I had so much on my mind that I threw the questions to the side. Although, in these same moments I knew eventually, I would have to tell them. When the time was right, I updated my parents, and this made our relationship more connected and allow them to feel a part of the education that they are gifting to me. For example, instead of reading a book and keeping my reactions to myself like

Or it stems from being forced to do unreasonable things pertaining to the book. If the people in the class where asked about what book they wanted to read, they would be more inclined, instead of being forced to read a book. Being forced to read kills the drive to read said book. In my mind that is one way to bring back the love for the purest form of literacy, reading. The other way to bring back the thirst for reading; especially me; is to read stories of people now, instead of having our kids read about someone who is our age in school. If we study people who aren’t dead, it brings with a connection the world that other dead authors didn’t have. The writer of the Scarlet Letter was not born in the time period he wrote about but even he, would be surprised at the women of our current generation. Times are no longer the same as they were then, or later, I cannot connect to that. I get bored trying to figure out what the big deal is about the charcters in the story. I cannot relate to the issues they have in my current life. Life is always changing and evolving so I believe the wirtings in school should change too, not regress into the clonial era. The colonial era should never leave the history class, unless someone can relate to, or has an interest in. As a