Education and Richard Rodriguez

Mike Rose vs. Richard Rodriguez
Mike Rose and Richard Rodriguez both support education and the success it brings for an individual, but they support them in different ways and for different reasons. In Mike Rose’s essay he explains how he was an average person in his vocational classes. He says that his intelligence was not on a low level, but rather he thought of his intelligence to be low because of his teachers and the fact he was in vocational classes, but he soon realizes that pushing to the next level was the key to his success. In contrast, Richard Rodriguez explains in his essay about education throughout his life which included his teachers, family background and how it affected his upbringing and success. Mike Rose’s attitude about education and success and Richard Rodriguez attitude both have similarities but also have differences. First, when I look at the authors push to get an education I see in Richard Rodriguez’s essay that he was very motivated. He started as a young boy with an accent striving to learn more and attain knowledge whenever he could because he knew of the benefits. In the story Rodriguez says that he shifted away from family life to study more and learn more from his teachers. He wanted school rather than his uneducated family. In contrast, Mike Rose clearly didn’t want to be in school, he wanted an easy way out of things. Rose explains he was put in vocational classes by accident, but decided to stay in the classes with the lower level students. He explains how the teachers could care less about the student’s education which affected Rose because he saw himself and everyone as being average. Second, the relationships the authors had with their teachers were different. Rodriguez’s relationship with his teachers was one that really helped him succeed. Rodriguez’s teachers were dedicated to him and wanted to give him all the information he asked. Richard took advantage of his teacher’s knowledge by always asking questions. He