The Achievement Of Desire By Richard Rodriguez

In his essay, “The Achievement of Desire,” Richard Rodriguez informs readers that he was a scholarship boy throughout his educational career. He uses his own personal experiences, as well as Richard Hoggart’s definition of the “scholarship boy,” to describe himself as someone who constantly struggles with balancing his life between family and education, and ends up on the side of education. In recognizing himself as a “scholarship boy,” he shows that he has gained what sociologist C. Wright Mills terms the “sociological imagination,” which “enables its possessor to understand the larger

Richard Rodriguez’s “the Achievement of Desire” is a reflective essay written to inform students about the woes of being a “scholarship boy” (338-355). As Rodriguez describes, the scholarship boy is a student who follows the educational game plan to the extreme. Rodriguez identifies as the scholarship boy who is determined to become like the teachers he has encountered. This need for education has unforeseen consequences. Rodriguez faces problems in his social life, academic life, and home life. In “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education, Paulo Freire describes an education system built on ideals where a student must become like his teacher in order to be successful. Because of this fact, Rodriguez’s idea of the “scholarship boy” coincides with the ‘banking’ concept of education.

In his work entitled “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts”, journalist and author Alfred Lubrano poses the question of how receiving education can lead to a harsh reality. Lubrano explains that as a child works toward a higher education, there are certain aspects of life they are forced to leave behind as they enter into a new existence. According to Lubrano’s statement, “At night, at home, the differences in the Columbia experiences my father and I were having was becoming more evident” (532). Additionally, Lubrano states, “We talked about general stuff, and I learned to self-censor. I’d seen how ideas could be upsetting, especially when wielded by a smarmy freshman who barely knew what he was talking about” (533). In answering this question, Lubrano must explore the types of conversations that occurred with other family members, the disconnection from his peers, and how segregating himself from his family

In today’s society college is seen as a very fundamental step to obtaining success, Carmen Lugo-Lugo argues that instead of being focused on education, college is beginning to turn into a marketplace and a business. She states that colleges are now more interested in making a profit from their students than the actual education they are there for. Due to this mindset it affects the flow of the classroom environment and how professors are treated by students. She also makes it prevalent how systematic racism and racial profiling exist and tells the readers by her first hand accounts. In her essay “A Prostitute, A Servant, And A Customer-Service Representative: A Latina in Academia” Carmen Lugo-Lugo uses emotion and language to communicate

Ever since Richard Rodriguez stepped into the world of education, he had a thirst for knowledge. Also, at a very young age, Richard began to see a divide between the two most important aspects of his life, his family and his education. Through out the essay, “The Achievement of Desire”, Rodriguez describes himself as a “scholarship boy” and defines the term as one who is a good student, but a troubled son. After reading “The Achievement of Desire”, Rodriguez explains through his personal experiences with education that there is a conflicting relationship between school and family. Rodriguez tries to convey a very important message to students that are similar to him in that there is a balance of education and family and without either, happiness

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.

Paul mirrors Richard Rodriguez’s scholarship boy’s lack of imagination by plagiarizing a speech from Groton’s graduation ceremony from Catcher in the Rye, while in the Kitteridge’s apartment, Paul says “The imagination. That's God's gift to make the act of self-examination bearable”. (Six Degrees of Separation 42) Paul feels so discouraged by his previous life-style, he feels the need to create a new self in order to be happy with his life. Paul’s journey to succeed in accumulating into the higher class is bittersweet because Paul lack the understanding of what success means and the cost it will take in his life.

Many of us are very family oriented and believe that family should always be present in our life no matter what do in life. While some of us feel that, our desire is worth more important than family due to the lack of communication with family members. In the “Achievement of Desire” by Richard Rodriguez, Rodriguez recalls some of the difficulties he had at a young age, which was balancing his life academically and practicing the Mexican traditions. His desire was more important to him than his family because communication with his family was not as strong as before when he began to get more involved in his education, which separates him from his family mentally and physically.

In Rodriguez’s essay, The Achievement of Desire, Rodriguez illustrates the characteristics of an automaton, thus confirming Freire’s views regarding the banking concept. Despite his classification as a "scholarship boy", Rodriguez lacked his own point of view and confidence, which led him to be dominated by his teachers and his books. In the eyes of Paulo Frerie, Rodriguez would be considered a receptacle. He was filled not only with his teacher’s information, but also with knowledge obtained from his reading of "important" books. Rodriguez is a classic student of the banking system.

Rodriguez's autobiography also portrays the social and economic problems with affirmative action for the "privileged" minority student. He reports, "In the late 1960s nonwhite Americans clamored for access to higher education, and I became a principal beneficiary of the academy's response, its programs of affirmative action" (143). Ironically, the author now regrets having been involved with (or forced into) accepting the "assistance" these programs offered: "For me there is no way to say it with grace. I say it rather with irony sharpened with self-pity. I say it with anger. It is a term that should never have been foisted on me. One I was wrong to accept" (143). Potential students from the lowest socioeconomic groups were not even considered by institutions of higher learning simply because the colleges only looked at the boxes checked on applications, and not the actual student's financial needs. The author explains, "Most blacks simply couldn't afford tuition for higher education. And, because the primary and secondary schooling blacks received was usually poor, few qualified for admission. Many were so culturally alienated that they never thought to apply; they couldn't even imagine themselves going to

Although a majority of my family are college graduates from Peruvian universities, few graduated from universities in the United States. A bachelor’s degree has become common ground in my family. I wish to pursue a graduate degree to set a high standard for my future children to follow. My Peruvian and Chicano culture has greatly influenced the value of education. For me education is not just considered to be knowledge, but instead extends to the daily

In Richard Rodriguez’s essay “The Achievement of Desire,” Rodriguez talks about how his education has created a negative impact on his family life. Growing up, he spent so much time reading and focusing on his studies that he in turn neglected his family relationships. While I can relate to how he spent many hours away from his family in an effort to pursue his interests, unlike Rodriguez, I never let it loosen my ties to my family. We finished our last port de bras and made our way back to the tiny pink dressing room, desperate for a long drink of cold water.

Growing up in a one bedroom apartment in the ghetto of Ontario, influenced by gangs and violence, is not the ideal childhood to experience. In a community that is predominantly Latino the expectations for academics are

Malcolm X once said “education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today”. From adolescence to adulthood almost every person is put through schooling. As one gets older in age, the education they obtain becomes more rigorous in order to stretch their minds far beyond two plus two or what color the sky is. The strategies of critically thinking and being able to analyze/decipher information in front is them is reinforced routinely in the educational system. With this being said, the purpose of education is to aid in enhancing one’s qualification, socialisation, and subjectification skills within the society regardless of how or where one’s education was obtained.

The purpose of education brings power and knowledge to life. Education has the power to evaluate you. Education is given to everyone for equal opportunity. It gives you the capability to succeed in life. In “The Banking Concept of Education” one of Paulo Freire’s main idea expresses thoughts on how education is suffering from narration sickness due to the relationship between the teacher and the student. Freire believes that the Banking Method of Education simply fills the students with the contents of the teacher’s narration and causes a lack on their creativity, critical thinking, and free expression. By the students just sitting in the classroom listening to the teacher and not engaging in any type of conversations, limits their ability to really understanding what is being taught to them.It also limits the use of what is being taught to them with reality. The method fails because it lacks communication between the teacher and the students in which it also disconnects the content from reality. Referring to the song we listened to in class our education is teaching us how to uplift another community but how is it helping us be more enlightened on our well being in our own community. I thought education gives light to life through the skills and knowledge taught and with education individuals can achieve greatness in life but I feel that is not the case anymore. Some may say it depends on who is teaching you because for example a white teacher trying to teach you African