If not for Jack MacFarland, Rose may never have gone onto Loyola or become the kind of person that he became today.
In contrast, Richard Rodriquez's memoir "the achievement of desire" derogates education and amplifies the true value of the 'ordinary' person that is often overlooked...
The two articles have one thing in common: both indicate that there is more thantn one kind of knowledge and that we do ill by abrogating people's capacities and skills to a Western construct of 'knowledge'.
The conventional school system, at least in the Western world, perceives 'knowledge' to be comprised of certain skills in certain subjects at a certain level that they rate to be applicable This they have pronounced to be the 'norm' and so anything that rises or falls beyond it at either of the two perimeters is adjudged 'abnormal' and the individual suffers as a result.
Rodriguez was the prodigy. His parents and their acquaintances treated him as such. They treated him as the 'scholarship child', but the ';scholarship child' was retreating more and dmore form his parents' simple ways. His education made him so.
Again we have that implication of the philosophical complications of what a true education or true 'knowledge' consists of. We have th incident of the 'Miss America' who proudly announces...
Is 'Fine Arts' more useful and more admirable than the practical work that Rodriguez's father learned? And could Rodriguez father have learned more had he gone to university? For that matter, why is one style knowledge considered more important than the fast typing or the sanitation skills that Rodriguez's father acquired? Today, business skills are considered an educational achievement. They weren't always so. May not 'knowledge' therefore, or at least socially credentialed knowledge depends on the fads of the time...
There is another similarity between both stories. Rodriguez's
mother was naturally smart "on her own she determined to learn how to type" (603). yet, the teachers overlooked her ("she had been awarded a high-school diploma by teachers too careless, or too busy, t o note that she hardly spoke English" (ibid)). Had she been treated for her potential, had they taken greater interest and care in her, Rodriguez's mother may have gone on to becoming far more than th typist that she attempted to be and failed in being. As Rodriguez observed: "With a good education, she could have done anything" (603)
The taking away lesson from both stories? That we, as teachers and humans, have to look beyond the externals of status, class, circumstance and treat every individual for what he may yet become. 'Knowledge' is a social construct that, in reality, exists in many forms. No one child should be branded as stupid or intelligent due to a narrow definition of 'knowledge'. Rather all should be treated as intelligent and gifted. And then all will become so -- in their own way.
Source
Rose, M. "I Just Wanna Be Average"
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~mmartin/rose.pdf
Rodriquez, R. The achievement of desire http://myweb.cwpost.liu.edu/lbai/Data/English%201F -- Materials/Open%20Questions/the%20Achievement%20of%20Desire.pdf
