Rodriguez

What really stuck out for me when I read the article was when revealed that he started to “idolize” his teachers. He began to “mimic the way they talked”, and basically awaiting on their every word going so far as to read any book the teacher would bring up in class. Now I wouldn’t go as far and follow my teachers on their every word like Rodriquez, but I too used to hold my teachers with high esteem even over my parents. My parents are in no way like Rodriquez’s, I received constant encouragement of my reading as a child and my school, but I still held my teachers higher. My teachers seemed to know everything, or so I thought, especially in areas that my parents had no idea about. The teacher’s persona, specially the males obviously, was the coolest thing for me. The way some would dress in dress shirts with ties and dress pants with shiny shoes was something that I never saw at home. The respect that they not only demanded, but also got because they were good teachers is something that I want today. I want to become this type of role model for kids to end up looking up to especially if they have no one else to look up.
There was one area that does make me think. At the beginning of part three he states, “The scholarship boy pleases most when he is young.” That recognition of his achievements begins to dwindle away as he gets older. With teachers, to me, this is completely true. There are so few professors that ever acknowledged any of my achievements like elementary teachers to. The only classes that I can actually think of at this moment are the English writing courses here at UW-Milwaukee. The smiley faces or “Yes” comments in our papers really help out a lot. It lets us know that we are on the right track. I remember getting papers back at UW-Madison with just solely a grade on it, no comments whatsoever so I had no idea what I was doing right or what I was doing wrong. But as far as my parents or even grandparents go I used to get presents or money whenever I got a good report card. Last semester I got straight A’s for the first time in my college career and all I got was a “Hey, good job.” I think I deserve a little more appreciation that a way to go for all the hard work I did, I mean just some kind of a hug would be nice. Rodriguez later goes on to say that fellow students especially never acknowledge, and even pisses most other kids off when another student for being so into his learning. I myself can a little scorn from my roommates for going to the library for a couple of hours on a Thursday. It is very hard for the scholarship boy to continue to do the work that he does when there are so few who praise him for it when so many patronize him for it.