Schooling used to be the most important thing for Richard Rodriguez until the day he finally found out he become nostalgic. After he found out the fact that he becomes nostalgic, he simply just goes back home and spends time with his parents. However, he finally concluded his fact that "If, because of my schooling, I had grown culturally separated from my parents, my education finally had given me ways of speaking and caring about the fact."(532) It was because of all the education he had, gave himself a chance to realize what he really did in the past thirty years. Education had given him "ways of speaking and caring" about the consequent separation from his parents.

Education seems to be the most important thing for Rodriguez. When he was a little boy, he found out himself could not feel comfortable at home. He feels there is a gap between he and his parents. Initially, Rodriguez was "The boy who first entered a classroom barely able to speak English." (515) At first, it is a good thing that his parents want him to receive a better education environment. However, things turn out differently when he was in school. He was so proud of himself that he lost the Spanish accent. When he was in second grade, he "was the one who came home and corrected the "simple" grammatical mistakes of our parents." Rodriguez, the son of Mexican immigrants, through all these things, he finally realizes that he is ashamed of his parent's lack of education. I believe this is the vital thing, which pushes him to become successful. As a result, he becomes willing to spend time with books and assignments rather than talk to his parents. He keeps asking himself to learn more, to read more in order becoming a successful person. From my perspective, even though for some times, he may be nostalgia, but he tried to forget it and keep moving, he wrote: "Those times I remembered the loss of my past with regret, I quickly reminded myself of all the things my teachers could give me. (They could make me an educated man) I evaded nostalgia."(519) So, the truth is, he did regret, but when he thinks about teachers could make him become a educated person, he pushes himself to keep learning and reading. Rodriguez's parents are both uneducated. His mother came to America awarded a high school diploma. She learned typing and gets a job of typing letters. However, she lost her job because of the lack of her education. His father once had great expectations on his future to be an engineer. But things always turn out differently, he did not achieve his goal instead of being an engineer, he become a janitor at a fancy department store. Rodriguez feels embarrassed by their lack of education. Just like Rodriguez said, "Simply, what mattered to me was that they were not like my teachers." In Rodriguez's vision, his teachers are well educated, and educated means successful. His parents, are the opposite, they both lack of education; In a result, he feels embarrassed and ashamed of his parents. After he went to college, the gap between he and his parents gets worse. He went home during Christmas vacation; At that point, he was trying to talk to his parents, but the truth is, they cannot even communicate with each other normally. Rodriguez describes this experience "But, lacking the same words to develop our sentences and to shape our interests, what was there to say?"(523) From the bottom of his heart, he feels his parents are uneducated; he initially rejected to speak to his parents. Also, he seldom talks to his parents since primary school. At that point, I think the only thing he feels is disappointment. He feels disappointed because his parents are not changing, they are not learning or reading in order to develop themselves. Still, he feels ashamed and embarrassed of their lack of education.