“A primary reason for many success in the classroom was that I couldn’t forget that schooling was changing me and separating me from the life I enjoyed before becoming a student ”- Richard Rodriguez. In the Achievement Of Desire, Rodriguez is different from his schooling, family and everything around him. There are not many people in this world that you know will go in there closet and read a book in peace. Even when you are not wealthy and your family is poor. Although you may not know you are being stereotyped. This would be Rodriguez; his way of reading and speaking out, it would be through books. As Rodriguez says “In spite of my earnestness, I found reading a pleasurable activity. I came to enjoy …show more content…
Also this is the reason he would not fit in any place, not at school or home. Ever since he was in elementary school Rodriguez knew that there was an educational division between him and his family, so he never could feel comfortable. Although Rodriguez did give his parents credit when he says “ Tightening the irony into a knot was the knowledge that my parents were always behind me. They made success possible. They evened the path. They sent their children to parochial schools because the nuns “teach better”. They paid a tuition they could not afford. They spoke English to us” (344). By this taking place Rodriguez parents wanted their children to have chances they never had. Giving her children an opportunity to not be like other families that went straight into the workforce. They let education get a grasp onto the life of the children. Giving them a chance to become something in life and not put them down: because the parents once didn’t have the chance to. Even though his parents may not be academically intelligent they are intelligent in other ways. By working to get where they are now and helping their children avoid the same mistakes they once made. But when Rodriguez is seen as scholarship boy he doesn’t fully reach the goal of being “knowledgeable”, “ He is the mimic: a collector of thoughts, not a thinker, the very last person in class who ever feels obliged to have an opinion of his own” (352). He has to understand …show more content…
I can remember being similar to Rodriguez as he was in school. I would bring homework home from high school, work from honors chemistry or mathematics problems. My aunt would ask “ What is it that you're learning about this time”? And I would respond the same every time, “ I don’t think you’d understand”. Giving her the short answer instead of the long drawn out answer, that would take away from me doing my work. This relates to Rodriguez when he says “ I hoarded the pleasures of learning. Alone for hours. Enthralled. Nervous. I rarely looked away from my books- or back on my memories. Nights when relatives visited and the front rooms were warmed by spanish sounds, I slipped quietly out of the house” (343). He didn’t want to make time for his parents or family because he felt he needed more time with his books. Although my aunt was really supportive of my hard work and studies, she encouraged me to challenge myself. And go after whatever it is that I desire in life. “Education is that human process of feeling your body mature, feeling your mind with ideas that it never had before, or information you never had. You simply cannot do that on a computer”.-Richard