Talking Point #2

Richard Rodrigues "Aria"

I feel that the main thing that Mr. Rodriguez is trying to say is that we need to respet children, their wishes, and where they come from. It is always easier to simplify things we do not understand and things that seem different but to actually take the time to understand it is something else entirely and something that everyone should try and do.

1.) "Without question, it would have pleased me to hear my teachers address mein Spanish when I entered the classroom. I would have felt much less afraid. Iwould have trusted them and responded with ease."

I think that this quote is important because it is very significant to alot of children. i feel that this quote is very similar to what alot of bilingual children say to themselves when they are forced into the same situation as rodriguez was as a little kid.

2.) "I would have been happier about my public success had I not sometimes recalled what it had been like earlier, when my family had conveyed its intimacy through a set ofconveniently private sounds."

This quote is important because it shows that he did not have a good start to his childhood and that he still remembers it. I feel that no matter what race, gender, sexual prferance, religion, etc..., that everyone should be treated with the same amount of dignity and respect so that instances like this will not happen which is that children have bad experiences as children and those memories stick with them forever.

3.) "while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality."

this quote is important because it shows that our world today is slowly and slowly diminishing in privacy and it is becoming a more "open to the public" world. not everyone's personal lives need to be on display, especially shy minorities. i say this because i feel like americans today and mainly white people are trying to pry into minorities lives and figure out every little thing that they are doing, all because of the September 11th attacks.



I thought the article, as a whole, was very easy to read and it was short and to the point. I feel that alot of minorities felt and actually still feel the same way that Rodriguez felt as a little child. They feel that they do not belong in that setting because they do not speak english "properly" or that they have a very thick accent, so much so that it is hard to understand them. I feel that everyone needs to be seen and treated with the same amount of dignity and respect that everyone else should be treated with.