Education Richard Rodriguez and Mike Rose both write about their education. In "I Just Wanna Be Average," Mike Rose recounts his experience in Catholic school as an Italian-American from a working class family background. Because of a school error, he was placed in the vocational tract at school. The experience taught Rose a lot about the low expectations place on students, the lack of effective role models in the classroom, and

Mike Rose and Richard Rodriguez expose the weaknesses in the American educational system. In "I Just Wanna Be Average," Rose talks about his experience being accidentally placed into the vocational tract at school, when he was actually an advanced student. When he is eventually shifted to the college prep level, Rose notes that he lost all motivation to learn and it was a struggle to find inspiration in education.

We speak a patois, a forked tongue, a variation of two languages. Chicano Spanish sprang out of the Chicanos' need to identify ourselves as a distinct people. We needed a language with which we could communicate with ourselves, a secret language. For some of us, language is a homeland closer than the Southwest -- for many Chicanos today live in the Midwest and the East." The border language becomes a language

Hispanic-American Culture' Richard Rodriguez' article "Hispanic-American Culture' is about not only the experiences that he dealt with, but the way that the Hispanic Culture meets the American culture and how the two work together. Those that are Hispanic-American want to remember their Hispanic heritage, but they also want the benefits that they get from America. The way that Rodriguez tells the story it is clear that he is very proud

Language Both Malcolm X and Richard Rodriguez frame language in terms of political and social power. Malcolm X and Richard Rodriguez both comment on the power of language to demark social status. Language is also a form of empowerment, both personal and political. Rodriguez focuses on the social and political implications of bilingualism. The author shows that in the United States, English is the language of the dominant culture and all other

This is a type of assimilation that often allows some minority groups to maintain a connection to their previous culture. The white majority does become influenced in many ways, even though it may deny it. However, this process is very painful for many minority groups that feel helpless in the terms by which they must be assimilated into the majority culture. Thus, Rodriguez is saying that the more correct metaphor