Response to Melanie 2/15

I thought this essay was very complex and interesting. I had some troubles pin-pointing his own thoughts/perspectives because the words he used didn't seem to say much. He was kinda talking in circles yet there were strong implied messages/opinions such as his embarrassment towards his parents. I appreciate your comments on the term "scholarship boy" because it helped me to tie it all together. "Scholarship boy: good student, troubled son. The child is moderately endowed..."(Rodriguez 433). I find this sentence to be very complex and multifaceted. Does the comment good student, troubled son suggest the students alienation or the parents/families perception of the him becoming troubled? Perhaps it is both. The examples of his mother asking him what did he see in his books, or his brother calling him four eyes all seem to suggest that there is some sort of shared "troubling anxiety" between the student and the family.

I have a lot of criticism toward this essay because in the beginning Rodriguez was struggling with trying to reflect and understand his academic success and it seems that he was searching outside of himself instead of within. For example, he is searching through books which is how he discovered Richard Hoggart, he then finds a label/term in which to identify himself(scholarship boy) and then begins to recall examples from his childhood that are aligned with Hoggart's analysis. Throughout the essay, Rodriguez passively touches on his feelings of embarrassment towards his family and blames their "distant interactions" on the fact that they simply had nothing in common, however as I was reading his essay I never read anything about Rodriguez attempting to open up to his parents about his experience in school, particularly college. There is this assumption that they wouldn't be able to relate to him. I wonder why didn't he try to relate to them, find a common ground?

Lastly, I thought your final question was interesting, How will we as teachers be able to help students like this? This question is one of my strongest motivations for wanting to become a teacher. In my opinion, students such as Rodriguez, and students of color from working/middle-class all seem to develop some feelings of embarrassment/resentment towards their families and their backgrounds once they begin to enter the "commonplace" why? Perhaps it is because there is a lack of acknowledgement towards multiculturalism within the classroom. Would Rodriguez have felt embarrassed had his teachers assigned books by Hispanic American Authors? would Rodriguez have been happy to shed his accent had he attended a bilingual school? When thinking about the school setting, literary canons, and most of the teachers within these schools (In wisconsin 92% of teachers within public schools are caucasion) it is difficult to say whether or not students like these have the chance to bridge home life with school life. I am not suggesting that incorporating a more all inclusive curriculum from a multicultural standpoint will eliminate the anxieties and alienation Rodriguez faced I think that there will always be a double consciousness among students of color, that is having a fluid identity between their individual culture and aspiring to be american, a part of discourse, canonized, especially within an academic setting. I think teachers can and should use their curriculum to promote their students personal experiences and academic experiences as being equal and vital towards the shaping of ones identity.