Rodriguez: Sarah Hanson

After carefully reading over Rodriguez's experience, I came to the conclusion that my life compared to his life is vastly different. Reading the article he said," The scholarship boy reaches a different conclusion. He cannot afford to admire his parents. (How could he and still pursue such a contrary life?) He permits himself embarrassment at their lack of education." This i cannot relate to Rodriguez about, and it stuck out to me the most. Both of my parents are college educated, my mom has a four year degree, and my dad too has a four year degree on top of having a masters degree. My entire life i was always pushed into making great grades so that i can attend a four year institute and get a degree, then start my adult life. Rodriguez was embarrassed of his parents for not going to college, and on the contrary I am very proud of both my parents. My parents were my role model, and still are to this day. Rodriguez valued his education, which i do believe we both have in common. It was always distilled in me, like i said to make good grades and go to college. That’s where Rodriguez and myself come to a cross roads. He said he grew a voice in school with his classmates and with his teachers, and less of a voice at home with his parents and his family. My family we always spoke about school, and my progress. When reading about the dialogue with his family, my heart just broke for him. I could never imagine not being able to come to my parents with problems in school; you know teacher issues, or homework issues.

I feel i relate to Rodriguez a lot when it comes to his student teacher relationship. I always had a very mature, good student relationship. Rodriguez won awards in school for his merits in his curriculum. I too, won many awards for my good grades. Rodriguez admired his teachers for the way they spoke with such eloquence, and I too had a teacher in particular that i simply just thought they walked on water, and spoke the way i too wanting to be a educator aspire to be just like. Rodriguez as a "scholarship boy" heard a lot, "Your parents must be so proud." I too heard that a lot, coming from a good educated background, i also played sports. I feel that my dad in particular pushed me to do things that sometimes i just did not want to do. So when i did win some awards, I would not even want to tell my dad because that opened a new door way to something i just did not want to do. For example, i had made the highest grade in my tenth grade Math class. Math was not my favorite subject, but i was pretty good at it. The teacher had invited me to join the Math club at school that i was no way interested in, and i was far to busy to join it. As soon as my father found out, he immediately pushed me into the club, saying it would look good on college applications. I did however do it throughout my high school career. When i would get invited to do something else like that, or get some type of honor, i did not want to tell my dad because then he would just push me into doing that i did not wanna do. I know that might be exactly what Rodriguez went through with his family, but i do feel that it connects with the "Scholarship boy" theme.