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The Achievement of Desire summary
Richard Rodriguez on the achievement of desire analysis
The Achievement of Desire summary
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Once, the parent decided to let their children to have school, it had been seeded with something beyond the knowledge. In the positive side, friends, interest, social skills and rewards can be found during schooling. However, the dark side is how much the student has to pay from their boyhood to manhood in order to reach the achievement. From the early year, I have realized that every student has their standing point between how much they can lose and gain. Until I read “The Achievement of Desire” written by Richard Rodriguez, this concept is clearly proved. Rodriguez chooses to place himself in a closest point to academic achievement in early age. When he was nearly thirty years old after his graduate study, he wrote about his “embarrassment” in academic success. (Rodriguez 339) …show more content…
It seems like an old say, “no pain, and no gain”, and in this paper, it will further define what is the gain and pain. It is not difficult to imagine that a student of distinction will enjoy more benefits than the “working-class” students. The benefits are including but not limited to prizes, scholarships, and featured rewards. Rodriguez also notes that, “Many other persons offer to help him. A businessman learns the boy’s story and promises to underwrite part of the cost of his college education. A woman leaves him her entire library of several hundred books when she moves. His progress is featured in a newspaper article.” (Rodriguez
Bruni begins by describing the golden promise of college as it appeared for baby boomers. In that time getting into college and completing a degree was enough to be successful. He acknowledges that this idealized vision of college may be inaccurate, however, he asserts that the issue is far more “complicated” than it once was. Bruni makes use of a recent (2012) debate over student loan interest rates in the U.S. to explore the issues surrounding college education today. While rising student debt is certainly part of the problem he suggests that the issue extends beyond that. College is now a “luxury item with newly uncertain returns” (Bruni). While rising costs make college a luxury item that not everyone will be able to afford, even those who can and do manage to go to college are not guaranteed success.
The author argues that by focusing on the economic benefit, educators risk distracting students from the importance of the academic process itself. However, students of different socioeconomic backgrounds have different motivational factors. A study conducted by Stanford University in 2015 researched this particular topic. Five hundred-seventy students from different universities, ethnicities, and financial backgrounds were asked what motivates them to do well in school? Based on their results, low-income students were highly motivated by the
In the essay “Achievement of Desire”, author Richard Rodriguez, describes the story of our common experience such as growing up, leaving home, receiving an education, and joining the world. As a child, Rodriguez lived the life of an average teenager raised in the stereotypical student coming from a working class family. With the exception, Rodriguez was always top of his class, and he always spent time reading books or studying rather than spending time with his family or friends. This approach makes Rodriguez stand out as an exceptional student, but with time he becomes an outsider at home and in school. Rodriguez describes himself as a “scholarship boy” meaning that because of the scholarships and grants that he was receiving to attend school; there was much more of an expectation for him to acquire the best grades and the highest scores. Rodriguez suggests that the common college student struggles the way he did because when a student begins college, they forget “the life [they] enjoyed
John Marsh, Ph.D., shares his epiphany, that his sharing the popular belief that higher education was the answer to bringing about economic equality and curing poverty, was in fact wrong; in this short selection, “Why Education Is Not an Economic Panacea”, taken from his book, “Class Dismissed: Why We Cannot Teach or Learn Our Way Out of Inequality”. Marsh had felt that gaining a higher education himself worked to bring him to a level of economic equality, so, it should work the same way for everyone else. His change of heart comes after perhaps stepping down from the pedestal that many, with lots of letters after their name, sit on, or are put upon by others, and witnessing first-hand the dismal rates of graduation of students in the single course he teaches for The Odyssey Program. Serving as good Public Relations for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the program’s purpose was two-fold; it was to provide, at no cost, college level course(s) for low-income adults and look good for the University. In this excerpt, Marsh’s narrow vision seems to have opened up somewhat, however, it does not demonstrate that his visual field widened enough to see that there is much, much more than simply economics or education that is at play in determining where people end up in the spectrum of being considered successful in the United States. (Marsh 914)
Academic excellence is the primary desire of every parent and student. However, there are varying perceptions of the role of education in the life of and individual. According to the survey carried out on the perception of the role of education in the life of an individual, it was established that eight out of ten students were of the view that they pursued education for the purpose of economic gains. Additionally, six out of ten students viewed education as serving the purpose of broadening their view and perceptions in life. Accordingly, the widening of the will help them rethink their ideas and values. This essay will focus on the reasons why students attend college and barriers to education in light of the book Rereading America.
The argument about if college is worth it or not has been one of the biggest arguments throughout the media for decades. Students suffer a lot from the debts that they get from college and also the amount of studying that they do in college and when they graduate they ask themselves “is graduation from college really worth all the money that we paid and all the work that we have done?”
Our experiences with social class help define and shape our expectations for education, it’s potential and its power. How is it fair that education is provided for all different economic backgrounds and financial circumstances, but yet not everyone is able to use the education system to its full advantage? For instance, in Mike Rose’s “Blue Collar Brilliance”, his mother to quit school to provide for her family, due to their financial circumstance. Most students choose to go off to the military or workforce because they understand that continuing their education is extremely expensive. Gerald Graff, author of “Hidden Intellectualism”, discusses the difference between “book smarts” and “street smarts”. Graff focuses on how smarts can take countless forms and even be hidden. Take the case of, the gap between the upper-class, and the middle and working class. There are far more obstacles facing the lower classes, such as financial worry, compared to the upper-class.
Otherwise, why now the parents spend a lot of money to send their children to a good school to study, because the school education environment to the children’s influence is very important. When Wes A moved to Bronx, his mother had made a decision to send her children to private school after her seeing how poor the public school system had become, so she worked multiple jobs to manage the cost and relied on her parents to take care the children before and after school while at work. “My mother decided soon after our move to the Bronx that I was not going to public school. She wasn’t a snob, she was scared.”(47) Because she knew, if the children are growth of a bad education environment, the children of the world to know nature will be distorted. Without a good education, there is also no habits; No good sense, and also there will be some bad behavior. Today, the rate of crime is high; almost all can find the root cause of their growth environment. Maybe the lack of discipline, discouraged by mistake friends or too much stress, but all shows the importance of good education environment for children to grow
Success. Society tends to correlate “success” with the obtainment of a higher education. But what leads to a higher education? What many are reluctant to admit is that the American dream has fallen. Class division has become nearly impossible to repair. From educations such as Stanford, Harvard, and UCLA to vocational, adult programs, and community, pertaining to one education solely relies on one’s social class. Social class surreptitiously defines your “success”, the hidden curriculum of what your socioeconomic education teaches you to stay with in that social class.
...use of this issue. Even I prefer learning for my own pleasure over school work, but this competition is what molds students into high-achieving individuals. Having to work up to a deadline, conducting research, and collaborating with peers for group projects are all necessary tasks in the "real world". It is true that success can be achieved without school, but school is only one of the many pathways an individual can choose in order to become educated. School provides students with the ability to strive in the real word by providing them with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed. When asked what I am studying for, I can say that I am studying to become someone who can make a difference. I may not enjoy the stress and anxiety that comes with school, but I cherish the fact that school is providing me with the knowledge and skills I need to further my dreams.
In their essays, both Caroline Bird and Robin Wilson express a concern about the rising cost of college tuition. Bird argues that the cost of college makes it a poor investment, while Wilson argues that college is worth the investment. In Bird’s essay, “College Is a Waste of Time and Money” she argues that college is not worth the investment because going to college does not necessarily result in earning a higher income. She claims that college is structured in a way that attracts people who are already “slated to earn more money,” similar to those who come from wealthy backgrounds, and those with higher IQs (Bird 376). Bird also claims that someone from a lower status family who has the same education, occupation, and test scores will earn
Richard Rodriguez states himself he was an “imitative and unoriginal pupil” (Rodriguez 516). He takes what he reads and goes along with it; there is no analysis or individual thought. Unlike his brother or his sister, he feels the need to prove himself. Richard Rodriguez displays a strong yearning to be different. To be special and have esteem like the teachers and professors he venerates.
Ultimately, it is apparent that there are a lot of issues to address in order to establish a successful education. The biggest issue is the affordability of schools because it determines the quality of one’s education. The quality of teachers and the resources available to all students will be addressed once the tuition is affordable because it will close the gap in the accessibility of education within the lower, middle and upper-class. Successful education establishes the path of human and economic development that will promote new industries, technologies, innovations and ideas for a better future.
Education is a vital part of society. It serves the beneficial purpose of educating our children and getting them ready to be productive adults in today's society. But, the social institution of education is not without its problems. Continual efforts to modify and improve the system need to be made, if we are to reap the highest benefits that education has to offer to our children and our society as a whole.
Having explained the reason most children have become disheartened at the thought of school, I now turn my attention to the students who do realize school’s educational value. These are the students that will continue to prosper throughout their lives because they realize the extreme importance of education. There is a secret, yet not so secret, motivation behind their determination to exceed standards and expectations in school. The secret they withhold is their overwhelming desire to be successful in the future.