Talking Points II "Aria" by Richard Rodriguez

The article I read was from Richard Rodriguez explaining how hard it is to fit into a public society where you don't speak the language of others really well. Rodriguez's main language was Spanish and Spanish alone. Bilingualism isn't an easy task to do, but knowing that his main message to all the people was that throughout "learning the great lesson of school, he had a public identity." For example, in the article, teachers would distinctly pick on him and put him on the spot to speak in the language (English) that he's suppose to speak in this country. His reaction to that was embarrassing, diffident, and afraid. I would feel the same way if I was in his position as well. As he grew up, he became more involved with learning English since his siblings started to speak it. He became a much smarter person and could hear in on what people were saying throughout the locker room halls in their conversations. In addition to that he felt as though when he learned this language more and more his family bonding weakened. To me, a family doesn't need to break away from each other just because they're learning something that their not accustomed to.

I found the author's claims very convincing and one of them is public individuality vs. private individuality. Rodriguez says that "they don't seem to realize that there are two ways a person is individualized. So they do not realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality." (Rodriguez) I think that this argument can help other cultures out because by helping each other with getting to know a language or just a person in general their private language the public can learn and blend into the public for others to know as well. I like to call it immigration and the melting pot in the late 1800's to early 1900's.Yes were all different, but each of us can learn alot from the other.

That's how I also feel on public schools in America. These public schools need to encourage more cultures so that public vs. private individuality are not against one another. Kid's need to interact with other kid's to find out what each other is like and it's all part of growing up to me. Teacher's can spend time on this topic and even make it a Unit in history or whatever to teach. I think it's important to know where each one of us comes from.