Rodriguez- Alexa Nommensen

The term "scholarship boy" in some ways does and does not apply to my academic career. My education has always been important to my family as well as the friends and peers I surrounded myself with in my personal life. But in many ways my education and success was not my 'whole' life. After reading Rodriguez's piece, Hoggart's definition of scholarship boy does not pertain to the definition of Alexa Nommesen per say. I did come from a privileged family and had an excellent childhood experience. I connected to many of my teachers and peers and was involved in a large amount of extracurricular activities. Yet I would rather have it that way. A well rounded student makes more sense than a student who only focuses on reading to obtain a list of books. Hoggart's says that it is the underprivileged boy that advances past his cultural ways in order to become scholar.

Rodriguez's childhood experiences reflect his piece in such a malign way. One, he is trying to overcome his diversity by not being in the minority of the undereducated in his community. Two, the story of the choices he had to make in order to continue his academic success by losing the bond between his parents and siblings to have certificates and diplomas of written consent that he had done something great. The opportunities that Rodriguez had to miss or attend make his story of being a scholarship boy understandable. An example that reminds me of this is when we all were young we would go to our friends houses and sleepovers, but if you made the commitment to go to there house a week in advance and then another friend asks the night before the play date it was always hard to choose which to go to. I was taught that if something better comes along it may not be in your personal best interest to attend. In relations to that is our ever so important education. We need to be constantly learning and if something better comes along it better be in our personal best judgement and interest to weigh the pros and cons of the education path or if something better.

Being able to connect to the teacher through writing and reading is about opinions and interests. We want to read things we are interested in or write about our own thoughts. It's the selfish things we do that help us learn more about who we are. If Rodriguez is consider a "bad student" based on his ability to relate anything with his life experiences and readings it is because he did not have a life outside of his readings that he could personal write on besides the fact that his relationship with his family was tarnished due to cultural constraints. It was upsetting that Rodriguez's hard such a hard time coping with the loss of a connection with his family, but it was what he had wanted. He made his teachers proud and his parents always stood behind him. Almost just as he had planned it.