The Achievement of Desire by Richard Rodriguez

While reading this essay "The Achievement of Desire" by Richard Rodriguez, I was able to see myself in the author's story. I, like the author, have always kept my school work and home-life completely separate. Although Rodriguez's reasons for doing this may differ from mine, I still feel like I have some idea of where he is coming from while writing this piece. To me, school and home are two entities of my life that should never meet. Because I tend to live my life this way, I was better able to understand what Richard was saying when he mentioned the "scholarship boy" (Rodriguez, 516). Rodriguez was a very educated man, however, he lacked one of the most important things in a person's life....their opinion! When it came to school, one could say that Rodriguez resembled a sponge. By this I mean that he was able to absorb all the information required to do well on the tests, but when it came time to recall or analyze and criticize he really did not have a point of view. Richard was not truly passionate about his education, he was just in love with the idea of being educated. Sometimes I consider myself to be in this very same position as Richard. Do I read my school books because I love chemistry (as an example) and I cannot wait to learn more about combustion, or do I read just to ingest more daunting facts that i will later "spit-out" on an exam? Richard thought in the same way. Although he may not have enjoyed reading a "hundred most important books of Western Civilizations" (Rodriguez, 527) he did so just because he was told they would make him more educated. While reading does help improve learning abilities, it can also be a fun tasked if not abused!!!