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That he segues here into a discussion on how education has so often been used to spread a mythological history casting white men as heroic underscores the latent hostility toward the traditional education he was never afforded. By contrast, Rodriguez is afforded this education and yet, for many of the same reasons, is moved to decry it. Rodriguez tells by sharp contrast to Malcolm X of a life given over to opportunities, accomplishments, familial support and cultural pressure in the context of education. Rodriguez tells that "although I was a very good student, I was also a very bad student. I was a 'scholarship boy,' a certain kind of scholarship boy. Always successful, I was always unconfident. Exhilarated by my progress. Sad. I became the prized student -- anxious and eager to learn. Too eager, too anxious -- an imitative and unoriginal pupil." (Rodriguez, p. 598)
Even as he progressed this way, so discontent with his internal growth, Rodriguez received constant praise and encouragement from family and teachers. It wasn't until he began to personalize his desire for knowledge that Rodriguez truly found his own voice. So too does Malcolm X describe his growth. Indeed, he makes the startling observation that his immersion into this quest for knowledge, though contextualized by prison, marked his first brush with freedom. It is appropriate then, that while these two pieces emerge from diametrically opposed experiences and worldviews, they drive us to the same conclusion that traditional education is not inherently the superior context in which to truly learn about the world.
Works Cited:
Malcolm X (1965). Learning to Read, exc from the Autobiography of Malcolm X Grove Press.
Rodriquez, R. (1982). The Achievement of Desire, exc from the Hunger of Memory. Bantam.
