Giants Among Us , livre ebook

289

pages

English

Ebooks

2001

Écrit par
Sandria Rodriguez

Publié par
Vanderbilt University Press

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289

pages

English

Ebook

2001

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Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

Vanderbilt University Press

Date de parution

08 février 2001

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780826591500

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

1 Mo

How do children from undereducated and impoverished backgrounds get to college? What are the influences that lead them to overcome their socioeconomic disadvantages and sometimes the disapproval of families and friends to succeed in college? These are the basic questions Sandria Rodriguez posed to seventeen first-generation college graduates, and their compelling life stories make important contributions to what little is known about this phenomenon.

The daughter of parents who didn't finish elementary school, Rodriguez uses many examples from her own life in the course of examining the participants' experiences before, during, and after college that directed them toward social or educational activism. Together, the seventeen represent a wide range of diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, age, geographical area of childhood, and profession. Twelve of the seventeen hold advanced degrees, all are working professionals, and all come from families who were poor. Jerry, the son of German immigrants, owns an engineering company in Chicago; Chang, a native of China, is the first from his village to go to college; Grant, a sharecropper's son, is a lawyer with a nationally prominent law firm in Washington, D.C., and patron of fine arts; Arlene, a Mohawk Indian, is a storyteller and social activist; Alex, from Spanish Harlem, is an elementary school principal.

The book is divided into four parts. In the first two chapters, we meet the participants. In the three chapters that follow, Rodriguez examines how the participants as children perceived themselves within their families, schools, and communities. Chapters four and five focus on the campus life and the participants' activist experiences. Finally, chapter six offers recommendations for mentoring disadvantaged children, so that they can successfully "switch the track" and aim for something better.

Giants Among Us is an essential resource for college administrators, faculty, counselors, and student support-services staff--as well as K-12 educators--concerned with preparing, retaining and mentoring first-generation students.

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Publié par

Vanderbilt University Press

Date de parution

08 février 2001

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780826591500

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

1 Mo

Éducation Education

Giants amongUs FirstGeneration College Graduates Who Lead

Activist Lives

Sandria Rodriguez

Giants among Us

Vanderbilt Issues in Higher Education is a timely series that focuses on the three core functions of higher education: teaching, research, and service. Interdisciplinary in nature, it concentrates not only on how these core functions are carried out in colleges and universities but also on the contributions they make to larger issues of social and economic development, as well as various organizational, political, psychological, and social forces that influence their fulfillment and evolution.

Series Editor John M. Braxton Peabody College, Vanderbilt University

Editorial Advisory Board Ann Austin (Michigan State University) Marcia B. Baxter Magolda (Miami University) Alan E. Bayer (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) Ellen M. Brier (Vanderbilt University) Clifton F. Conrad (University of Wisconsin) Mary Frank Fox (Georgia Institute of Technology) Roger L. Geiger (Pennsylvania State University) Hugh Davis Graham (Vanderbilt University) Lowell Hargens (Ohio State University) James C. Hearn (University of Minnesota) George D. Kuh (Indiana University) Michael T. Nettles (University of Michigan) John C. Smart ((University of Memphis) Joan S. Stark (University of Michigan) William G. Tierney (University of Southern California) Caroline S. Turner (Arizona State University)

First-Generation College Graduates Who Lead Activist Lives

Sandria Rodriguez

Vanderbilt University Press NASHVILLE

This book is printed on acid-free paper. Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rodriguez, Sandria, 1944-Giants among us : first-generation college graduates who lead activist lives / Sandria Rodriguez. p. cm. — (Vanderbilt issues in higher education) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8265-1391-3 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 0-8265-1392-1 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Socially handicapped—Education (Higher)— United States—Case studies. 2. Academic achievement— Social aspects—United States—Case studies. 3. College graduates—United States—Interviews. I. Title. II. Series. LC4069.6 .R63 2002 378.1’6912’0922—dc21 2001004324

To my brother, Burnett Williams, Jr. 1946-1999

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

xiii

Freedom’s Genesis1 Motivation, Means, and Method: Studying Educational Attainment

The Economics of Oppression15 In Their Words: Stories of First-Generation College-Graduate Activists 19

Building a Rock Foundation Family, School, Community: Vehicles to Realized Potential 95

One Heart, One Love Access, Success, Egress: The Collegiate Experience

My Job Description Paying Back: A Sampler

129

135

167 171

Eyes Ahead of Us and Eyes Behind In Pursuit of Happines 205

References

Index

265

253

Preface

In my youth I suspected that if I thought too much about the plight of the poor, uneducated, and powerless, I would become dangerously militant, a young Angela Davis probably facing jail time. I was wary of committing, like Rosa Parks, so stunningly simple an act of civil disobedience in so decisive and irrevocable a manner as to take the nation’s breath away, bringing unimag-inable retaliation upon my family. Because I was raised in the south where civil disobedience was a sure route to uncivilized punishment, in my pragmatic view the most acceptable means of combatting discrimination and poverty appeared, and still appears, to be education. I dare say that even today, few among the thinking would disagree. The belief that education is key to American democracy is as old as the nation. It was articulated in Thomas Jefferson’s 1786 call to establish and im-prove the law for educating the common people (Ravitch 1983). But educa-tion lies near the bottom of the enfranchisement pyramid, below economic and political power, though each influences access to its apex, the democratic pursuit of a good life. As bulwarks protecting American democracy, the tri-umvirate of educational, economic, and political power has also served the contradictory purpose of walling out “undesirables.” The most intangible of the three powers, education is also the most irreducible and has frequently proved a prerequisite to economic and political parity. Thus, education is a pressure point around which the nation has historically managed privilege. A challenge for many in positions of political power has been balancing the nation’s inclusionary rhetoric with the simultaneous practice of exclusion. As one of the excluded, I have struggled to keep the seeds of bitterness from sprouting in my heart. My struggles against bitterness notwithstanding, I have spent much of my life thinking about issues of economic, social, and political inequality, so be-ginning a study of first-generation college graduates from low socioeconomic-status (SES) backgrounds was more akin to accessorizing a favorite outfit than

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