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It’s a well-known fact that English is by no means an easy language to acquire. The story of Richard Rodriguez’s “scholarship boy” status being established through self-identity and educational conflict isn’t his story, but the story of every single immigrant child who has struggled between the two vines in order to progress through life. “The boy who first entered a classroom barely able to speak English,…”, (PG 1) this quote by Rodriguez in “Achievement of Desire” not only captures the early change that was inevitable in his educational journey of having to face his own self-identity in regards to hopefully becoming a “scholarship boy”, but also touches on one of the biggest barriers facing incoming immigrant children. My first day of kindergarten …show more content…
I didn’t even know how to say “hi” in English, and the only way I made it through the first day without crying was to simply follow what the other children were doing in hopes of fitting in. The only identity I had known was that of my European ethnicity, and in that little kindergarten classroom I could not relate to anyone else. There were other immigrant children in the classroom, but even they could not self-identify with each other. “Somehow they learn to live in the two very different worlds of their day” (PG 4), I spent maybe four hours at school feeling isolated from the other children and then when I got home I felt welcome, but still a little isolated when I had to do the homework from what I was supposed to learn in school that day. Education is supposed to connect children with the world, but how come for me and probably other immigrant children it separated us? My parents always told me to take a break and relax a little, but I knew I could never really relax until I felt like I learned at least something new in school that I could apply to my home life. If I wanted to break the separation between my classmates and myself something had to be compromised. I didn’t want to lose my self-identity, and I certainly didn’t want to feel further separated from my classmates. The “two very different worlds” were a looming possibility for me, so I realized my need to spend more and more time studying, each night”(PG 4), to achieve that intangible balance Rodriguez struggled with throughout his early educational journey. There was not a single day that passed without my personal need to acquire the English language being deterred or slowed down an inch.
My parents bought me whatever resources they could afford from after-school bilingual clubs, personal tutors, flashcards, and the most valuable asset they could afford, their own time. I appreciated their time because I knew how they didn’t let the language barrier deter them from speaking to other people. Their accents didn’t connect to myself that they were immigrants, but that I was one of them. I had been working so hard to advance in my educational pursuit while unconsciously realizing that my self-identity would always be found in the way I spoke, and most importantly my own parents. While most kids were out playing and going to the park when school finished I headed straight home to start on my homework and there wasn’t a day that passed that I wasn’t offered help from one of my parents even though most of the time I could just barely understand a little bit better than them. Every passing day was used to strengthen my English language as I my foundation for self-identity was always in the living room eager to help in any form they could. I could have strayed off the “scholarship boy” path by enjoying my youth, but my youth was my self-identity and more importantly it was the two people who had given me life. The need to become acquainted with the English language prompted me to look upon education more seriously than any of the other kids in class. I didn’t want to be helpless and always be looked upon as the silent kid who was always by himself in the corner. When most kids complained about homework I didn’t mind it as I knew homework wasn’t a punishment but a means of changing my helplessness to
helpfulness. Two of the most important foundations for an immigrant child are self-identity and proper education. Immigrant children can have difficulty juggling these aspects like Rodriguez did throughout his academic career trying to use “stacks of paperback books” to reinforce his “assurance” (PG 11). Some kids might think that choosing school over self-identity is both a gain and a loss. I don’t view the two foundations as negative or positives, rather neutrals. I managed to strengthen both my self-identity and my educational reach through my “scholarship boy” status. Rodriguez and I are both “scholarship boys” even though the outcome and tribulations of our stories have varying differences. Self-identity and education are two essential entangled vines that immigrant children face early on in their educational pursuit, but how you nurture the vines ultimately decides what they blossom into.
“Standard English was imposed on children of immigrant parents, then the children were separated from native English speakers, then the children were labeled “inferior” and “ignorant” (Hughes 70) because they could not speak Standard English. In addition to feeling inferior about their second language skills, these students also felt inadequate in regard to speaking their own mother tongues” (qtd in Kanae)
Even if these students have achieved the highest honors and have the brains of an engineer, they aren’t able to reach their greatest potential because they simply do not have documents. Those who are undocumented are doomed to working backbreaking jobs that pay substantially below minimum wage. Spare Parts has challenged and shown me that it takes an immigrant double, or even triple the amount of toil to achieve anything in life. These boys endeavoured through adversities that many of us will never encounter. Luis luckily had a green card, but Lorenzo, Oscar, and Cristian were all living under the fear of deportation. They all wanted more after graduating from Carl Hayden but their dreams quickly vanished because the reality was that they’re illegal immigrants. When we hear the word “immigration”, we automatically think “illegal”, but what we don’t see is that these illegal immigrants are trying to reach their own American Dreams by coming to America. As the author includes Patrick J. Buchanan’s perspective on immigrants, “...families came to the United States to leech off government services.” (35), it shows us how immigrants are perceived.
Language is an important part of who we are. It influences the way we think and behave on a great scale. However, sometimes it is forced upon us to go in different directions just so we can physically and mentally feel as if we belong to the society in which we live in. Just as we see in Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” and Richard Rodriguez’s “A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”, both authors faced some challenges along the way by coping with two different languages, while still trying to achieve the social position which they desired.
To fully comprehend a work you cannot just read it. You must read it, analyze it, question it, and even then question what you are questioning. In Richard Rodriguez’s The Achievement of Desire we are presented with a young Richard Rodriguez and follow him from the start of his education until he is an adult finally having reached his goals. In reference to the way he reads for the majority of his education, it can be said he reads going with the grain, while he reads a large volume of books, the quality of his reading is lacking.
Despite growing up amidst a language deemed as “broken” and “fractured”, Amy Tan’s love for language allowed her to embrace the variations of English that surrounded her. In her short essay “Mother Tongue”, Tan discusses the internal conflict she had with the English learned from her mother to that of the English in her education. Sharing her experiences as an adolescent posing to be her mother for respect, Tan develops a frustration at the difficulty of not being taken seriously due to one’s inability to speak the way society expects. Disallowing others to prove their misconceptions of her, Tan exerted herself in excelling at English throughout school. She felt a need to rebel against the proverbial view that writing is not a strong suit of someone who grew up learning English in an immigrant family. Attempting to prove her mastery of the English language, Tan discovered her writing did not show who she truly was. She was an Asian-American, not just Asian, not just American, but that she belonged in both demographics. Disregarding the idea that her mother’s English could be something of a social deficit, a learning limitation, Tan expanded and cultivated her writing style to incorporate both the language she learned in school, as well as the variation of it spoken by her mother. Tan learned that in order to satisfy herself, she needed to acknowledge both of her “Englishes” (Tan 128).
Some people realize that an education could open up doors that will lead to the life that they desire; however, others view education as shackles that keep them from doing what they want to be doing. Nevertheless, the seriousness of one’s education varies from person to person. In his essay, “The Achievement of Desire”, Richard Rodriguez describes his experience of being a part of the “Banking Concept” and a “Scholarship Boy” throughout his many years of schooling and how it forced him to choose between an education or his culture and family. In the “Banking Concept” Paulo Freire said that “Implicit in the banking concept is the assumption of a dichotomy between human beings and the world; a person is merely in the world not with the world or with others; the person is spectator not re-creator.” With that, Freire would most likely interpret Rodriguez’s education as not fully assimilated into the “Banking Concept”, due to the development that Rodriguez underwent through his journey in his education, star...
The second example follows a working-class boy of Hispanic descent. Children from poor and working-class families face a number of obstacles. First, because of their parents’ work schedules,
In order to broaden your understanding of [gender, race, class, incarceration, injustice, or any other social issue] , you should read Richard Rodriguez’s “The Achievement of Desire.” This piece of writing is a perfect example of working hard to achieve one 's goals even after crossing into a new country. Twenty years ago Richard first came to this country barely able to speak English, Richard had an ambition to be successful in life at an early age. The first time I read his article i thought i can relate to it at a personal level. I came to this country at the age of 9 years old. I remember when i first walked into my first middle school with my mom. She was registering me and my sister to the local middle school where some of my cousins were already attending. Since the “No Child Felt behind Act” was active, even kids like me with no papers were permitted to enjoy the same education like everyone else.
In the academic article, That Child Is a Yellow: New Immigrant Children's Conceptions of English Language, Literacy, and Learners' Identities in the NCLB Era by Sultan Turkan and Ana Christina DaSilva Iddings they both illustrate how many children of immigrants and who are spanish speakers trying to learn english are motivated to succeed due to the pressure of fitting in and getting an education for upward mobility. Sultan Turkan a doctoral student during the course of this study at the university of arizona, Ana christina dasilva iddings an assistant professor at the same university. They conducted a study in which they drawed observations on three new immigrants who are also native speakers (Gabriela,Juan,and Maria). Turkan and Iddings observed
In the poem, Immigrant by Pat Mora, Mora writes about how two parents are trying to teach their children how to speak English. Mora uses a tone of pride in order to reveal the message that good parents are willing to do anything for their children’s good.
Richard Rodriguez was born in Sacramento, California during the 1950’s. His mother and father had worked hard before he was born to secure their children’s futures in the richer part of America, rather than the border towns, like many Mexican immigrants. Richard’s primary language was Spanish, so when he walked into his first day of school at a Catholic academy, he only knew around fifty stray English words. When Richard talked, he often spoke English with a few Spanish words intertwined in the sentences. After his first three weeks at the academy, a brother from the academy came to the Rodríguezes’ home to ask them to use English more around their children in order to help them absorb the language more efficiently. Richard’s
Rarely does one keep the same outlook for their whole life. Ideas and people are molded and reformed in the crucible of life. Often times, one is unaware that they are even being changed at all. In The Achievement of Desire, Rodriguez chronicles, from the perspective of the man he is now, the changes brought upon by education that shaped him, and the price associated with those changes. It was a price that he couldn't put his finger on at the time which makes it harder to have concrete opinions about it. Without any words to describe what he has lost, it is almost as if nothing has been lost, except for the inescapable feeling that something has been lost. He simply lacks any way to talk about it and bridge the gap between the situation and
...ents, and my English problem. I didn’t even have control of my own identity at that point. In the bilingual classroom my education depended upon the teachers and the system. I couldn’t express my viewpoints to faculty members like I do now in college. For instance, in college when I need help in a certain class, I can just go and talk to the professor or even to my counselor. Unfortunately, in grammar school, I didn’t know how to talk about the situation. As a result, in college I have been determined to change my study habits and take back control of my identity because I see how a student cannot survive with inefficient study habits. I realize now that, as a child, I was disadvantaged in many ways. Today, I have to be prepared to do extra to make up for a poor educational background by spending more time studying, focusing on school, and controlling my life.
As an immigrant, hard work has thus far been unavoidable. At the young age of five, I was brought to the states along with both my brothers of ages eleven and four. Although raised mostly in Georgia, my family roots lay deep in Mexican ground. Upon my arrival, seeing both my parents work harder than anyone I’ve ever seen inspired me to work as hard as I possibly could. The least I could do was to show them their hard work had not gone to waste. This motivation to accomplish my goals has been tested with obstacles throughout my scholarly years. The first was not long after our arrival.
When I first started school, I really didn’t know any English. It was hard because none of the kids knew what I was saying, and sometimes the teachers didn’t understand what I was saying. I was put in those ELL classes where they teach you English. The room they would take us to was full of pictures to teach us English, and they would make us sit on a red carpet and teach us how to read and write. When I would go back to regular class, I would have to try harder than the other students. I would have to study a little more and work a little harder with reading and writing if I wanted to be in the same level as the other kids in my class. when I got to third grade I took a test for my English and past it I didn’t have to go to does ELL classes anymore because I passed the test, and it felt great knowing that I wouldn’t have to take those classes no more.