QUOTES from "Aria" by Rodriguez

Quotes from Aria

Page 34 (Paragraph 2) - “But I would have delayed – for how long postponed? - having to learn the language of public society.”

- Although Richard would have felt better about being address in Spanish, it would not have made learning English a priority and he would have been far worse off if he delayed the “public society’s” language of English.

Page 36 (Paragraph 4) – “No longer so close; no longer bound tight by the pleasing and troubling knowledge of our public separateness.”

- The public language of society that are taught in schools can separate children from their parents because they no longer can relate to each other. The very foundation that makes a family work, communication, is lost and so is the bond, the trust, and the sense of family.

Page 38 (Last paragraph) – “Today I hear bilingual educators say that children lose a degree of “individuality” by becoming assimilated into public society.”

-Assimilating into public society does make a person lose a sense of self ,especially if one is accustom to a certain way of life, there everyday life is a constant struggle to “get it right” in order to fit in and be accepted     

Comments - With the article “Aria” I found it to be very true. There are many families where parents and grandparents speak a language other than English. Children are often left out or feel unaccepted due to many difficulties in school and in public society. Language is not the only thing lost in these families, so are their customs, their history, and their culture. These are significant loses to children and their families.

Argument

Kozol argues in “Amazing Grace”, that people do not understand what others go through, and why people with little or no money get treated horribly different. For example, when it was said that people of higher affluence would go to the poor community and dump trash that they do not want, this was disrespectful to those people who to live there due to circumstances beyond their control.

Parker argues in his poem “For the White Person Who Wants to be my Friend” that people judge African Americans all the same, all of them like only soul music or only eat soul food and know everything "black". His argument is, don’t try so hard to prove that you do not see me as different from you, because when you do it proves how different you really see me.

            First of all, I agreed with the poem “For the White Person Who Wants to be my Friend”. People should not judge others the same just because they are the same color. People should not just assume anything about a person without getting to know them. When I read “Amazing Grace” I was disturbed at the conditions people had to go through and what the children had to see. It was said that children call heroin the “needle drug”, no child should know anything about this let alone live with it. Also many people were drug users, prostitutes, or had Aids and with all the murders, this reminded me of an episode of Law and Order because to me growing up the way I did, not exposed to any of this, it was surreal. I am so thankful for what I have and how I grew up not knowing.

ABOUT ME

Hi I'm Ariel and I am currently going to college to become an elementary school teacher. I have two years left and I'm looking forward to having the job i have always wanted since I was a child. I've already volunteer at schools, so I have a sense of what it is going to be like. I am excited for my new career and helping children build their education.