“If I knew then what I know now” has become a resonating statement in my brain since I began my journey of achieving a “higher education”. While reading Rodriguez’s chapter “The Achievement of Desire” that statement continues to creep into my thoughts. The label “scholarship boy” has never been ascribed to myself, by anyone. Nor, was I at an early age considering how an education could affect my life in such profound ways. However, at this point in my educational career I have been able to relate to Rodriguez in a few select ways. Maybe not within the cultural ping-pong Rodriguez had to play between home and school life or through enduring the educational pressures of being a “scholarship boy”, but I definitely was able to relate to his thoughts and words in much more poignant ways.
Conjuring up the reminisce of my educational past, I do recall not being the best student in my class. My education was based solely on socializing and seeing how far I could get with the least amount of effort…I was able to graduate from high school without really trying very hard at all, unlike Rodriguez in his quest for being a dutiful “scholarship boy” into becoming a successful and “educated” man.
However, when Rodriguez described his mother and fathers relationship to his education. He said, “In contrast to my mother, my father never verbally encouraged his children’s academic success. Nor did he often praise us.”(438) That was similar to how it was in my family. My mother saw the potential in me, but didn’t really know how to bring it out of me, she did what she could to help, and my father worked. He worked a very physically demanding factory job with third shift hours. He worked to support his family of four (twin girls to boot). My father didn’t encourage me very often in my academic pursuits, he just expected me to “pass” (getting by with a C was considered passing)…that was it. I definitely am not blaming my parents for my educational mishaps, but they certainly did not set very high expectations or standards for me in my educational career.
Another connection I had with Rodriguez was on his family’s educational philosophy. Rodriguez states, “my mother saw in education the opportunity for job advancement, [while] my father recognized that education provided an even more startling possibility: It could enable a person to escape from a life of mere labor.”(438) Even though my parents would never state those words as their educational philosophy I’m pretty sure that is how they felt about education.
Unfortunately, my parents had very few educational expectations for me, they were to “pass” my classes, graduate high school, and then I was to graduate from the technical college to get a “good paying job”…period. My task was to “get through” the educational system and “pass” my classes. I accomplished this task in a few different ways. By being very polite, having good manners, staying out of trouble, doing the “least” amount of homework to get by, as well as, being somewhat persuasive when need be. I remember one persuasive moment was when I was able to convince my high school science teacher to give me a C instead of a D; in return I was to pull the weeds in the schools arboretum. I surely do not consider this as being an honorable way of “getting through” the educational system, but it seemed to work for me at the time. It wasn’t until several years after graduating from high school that I realized how an education could be an added benefit to ones life. Not only in pursuing a “career”, but also in the discovery of new thoughts and ideas.
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