Richard Rodriguez, author of “Scholarship Boy” talks about balancing his family life and school. With a family which doesn’t speak English and is uneducated, Richard looks for new ways to attain knowledge. At a young age, Rodriguez was always at the top of his class and spent more time with his books and studies than his family and/or friends. “I devoted myself to my studies. I became bookish, puzzling to all my family” (17). With his exhaustive amount of research, he became an outsider in his own home and began spending more time with the teachers that he admired so much. When younger Rodriguez comes upon Hoggart's concept of a “Scholarship Boy” while speeding through a few theory books, he decides what theories to use in his life and what theories to throw out. The problem was when Rodriguez began to separate himself from his family, he discovered that he loses all sense of self. He was no longer a part of his home or his school. Eventually, he grew up and found out how to balance his life, so everyone stays happy. In the beginning, Rodriguez was embarrassed by his parents and thought they were stupid and uneducated. He took their immerse, native knowledge for granted. Parents are a lot more experienced than their children and can help their kids avoid the same mistakes which they had made themselves. This really falls into context in Rodriguez’s case because his parents had worked so hard to achieve their goals. This shows that even though one might not be academically intelligent, they can be intelligent in so many other ways. Towards the end of the reading, Richard begins to appreciate his parents and takes into thought how they can help him achieve his goals in many ways. He had always felt ashamed when his parents talked to his teachers with their heavy accent. When he saw that his parents cared and wanted to know about his life, he saw their potential in him and began to appreciate all their hard work.
Seminar paper for “disliking books”
Gerald Graff, author of “disliking books” tells a story of his past as a teacher of literature. He begins by talking about his childhood and how diverse the boys and girls were in school. He says, “as a middle-class Jew growing up in an ethnically mixed Chicago neighborhood I was already in danger of being beaten up daily by rougher working-class boys becoming a bookworm would only have given them a decisive reason for beating me up. Reading and studying was more permissible for girls, but they, too, had to be careful not to get too intellectual lest they required the stigma of being stuck up” (22-23). He explains how putting up with this was extremely difficult because it was hard to study and achieve anything with the other students putting him down. Graff was not interested in what most boys were doing at this time. Instead, he excelled in English and decided to take part in it. Graff also expresses the idea of criticism. In some of his paragraphs, he talked about how he had read the critic, "and it was like picking up where the class discussion had left off” (25). To his surprise, he began to relate to read the novel and relate to the authors
I thought the readings really came hand in hand. In the first reading, “Scholarship Boy,” it was interesting how one man was so caught up in his studies that he never gave time to his family. However, when he grew up he learned to balance both his study and work so that he was benefiting from both activities. I also enjoyed reading how he was embarrassed because of his parents and soon grew to learn their many qualities and developed a new kind of pride and love for them. The first moral I learned from the story was to never put your family behind you and get caught up in other activities. Secondly, never to doubt your parents because they have a lot more experience than you and know more than you. Even if they lack a language or academic studies. Therefore, you are your parent’s children, not the other way around. Reading “Disliking Books” was quite different. It talked about a man who, at a young age, disliked literature and struggled in school because he was being bullied and put down. He then began to relate to the authors while growing up slowly developed a liking for books. Both of the readings were stories of men who had different struggles while growing up. These authors both shared their thoughts on growing up and I learned a thing or two from each of them.