UCLA Educational Career & College Application Process Discussion

Read “The Professor is a Dropout” by Beth Johnson before answering the following prompt:

Lupe credits her fellow Hispanic students with giving her valuable support in college. Is there anyone in your life – a teacher, family member, or friend – who has helped you through challenging times in your education? Explain what obstacles you faced and how this person helped you overcome them.

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The Professor is a Dropout
English Language Development – Writing (Brigham Young University-Idaho)
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The Professor Is a Dropout
Beth Johnson
Preview
After being mistakenly labeled “retarded” and humiliated into dropping out of first grade, Lupe
Quintanilla knew she wanted nothing more to do with formal education. Life as a wife and mother
would satisfy her—and it did, until she saw her own children being pushed aside as “slow learners.”
Driven to help them succeed, Lupe took steps that dramatically changed her life.
1Guadalupe Quintanilla is an assistant professor at the University of Houston. She is president of her
own communications company. She trains law enforcement officers all over the country. She was
nominated to serve as the U.S. Attorney General. She’s been a representative to the United Nations.
2That’s a pretty impressive string of accomplishments. It’s all the more impressive when you consider
this: “Lupe” Quintanilla is a first-grade dropout. Her school records state that she is retarded, that her
IQ is so low she can’t learn much of anything.
3How did Lupe Quintanilla, “retarded” nonlearner, become Dr. Quintanilla, respected educator? Her
remarkable journey began in the town of Nogales, Mexico, just below the Arizona border. That’s
where Lupe first lived with her grandparents. (Her parents had divorced.) Then an uncle who had just
finished medical school made her grandparents a generous offer. If they wanted to live with him, he
would support the family as he began his medical practice.
4Lupe, her grandparents, and her uncle all moved hundreds of miles to a town in southern Mexico
that didn’t even have paved roads, let alone any schools. There, Lupe grew up helping her grandfather
run his little pharmacy and her grandmother keep house. She remembers the time happily. “My
grandparents were wonderful,” she said. “Oh, my grandfather was stern, authoritarian, as Mexican
culture demanded, but they were also very kind to me.” When the chores were done, her grandfather
taught Lupe to read and write Spanish and do basic arithmetic.
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5When Lupe was twelve, her grandfather became blind. The family left Mexico and went to
Brownsville, Texas, with the hope that doctors there could restore his sight. Once they arrived in
Brownsville, Lupe was enrolled in school. Although she understood no English, she was given an IQ
test in that language. Not surprisingly, she didn’t do very well.
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6Lupe even remembers her score. “I scored a sixty-four, which classified me as seriously retarded, not
even teachable,” she said. “I was put into first grade with a class of six-year-olds. My duties were to
take the little kids to the bathroom and to cut out pictures.” The classroom activities were a total
mystery to Lupe—they were all conducted in English. And she was humiliated by the other children,
who teased her for being “so much older and so much dumber” than they were.
7After four months in first grade, an incident occurred that Lupe still does not fully understand. As
she stood in the doorway of the classroom waiting to escort a little girl to the bathroom, a man
approached her. He asked her, in Spanish, how to find the principal’s office. Lupe was delighted.
“Finally someone in this school had spoken to me with words I could understand, in the language of
my soul, the language of my grandmother,” she said. Eagerly, she answered his question in Spanish.
Instantly her teacher swooped down on her, grabbing her arm and scolding her. She pulled Lupe along
to the principal’s office. There, the teacher and the principal both shouted at her, obviously very
angry. Lupe was frightened and embarrassed, but also bewildered. She didn’t understand a word they
were saying.
Guadalape Quintanilla today
8“Why were they so angry? I don’t know,” said Lupe. “Was it because I spoke Spanish at school? Or
that I spoke to the man at all? I really don’t know. All I know is how humiliated I was.”
9When she got home that day, she cried miserably, begging her grandfather not to make her return to
school. Finally he agreed.
10From that time on, Lupe stayed at home, serving as her blind grandfather’s “eyes.” She was a fluent
reader in Spanish, and the older man loved to have her read newspapers, poetry, and novels aloud to
him for hours.
11Lupe’s own love of reading flourished during these years. Her vocabulary was enriched and her
imagination fired by the novels she read—novels which she learned later were classics of Spanish
literature. She read Don Quixote, the famous story of the noble, impractical knight who fought against
windmills. She read thrilling accounts of the Mexican revolution. She read La Prensa, the local
Spanish-language paper, and Selecciones, the Spanish-language version of Reader’s Digest.
12When she was just sixteen, Lupe married a young Mexican-American dental technician. Within
five years, she had given birth to her three children, Victor, Mario, and Martha. Lupe’s grandparents
lived with the young family. Lupe was quite happy with her life. “I cooked, sewed, cleaned, and cared
for everybody,” she said. “I listened to my grandmother when she told me what made a good wife. In
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the morning I would actually put on my husband’s shoes and tie the laces—anything to make his life
easier. Living with my grandparents for so long, I was one generation behind in my ideas of what a
woman could do and be.”
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13Lupe’s contentment ended when her children started school. When they brought home their report
cards, she struggled to understand them. She could read enough English to know that what they said
was not good. Her children had been put into a group called “Yellow Birds.” It was a group for slow
learners.
14At night in bed, Lupe cried and blamed herself. It was obvious—not only was she retarded, but her
children had taken after her. Now they, too, would never be able to learn like other children.
15But in time, a thought began to break through Lupe’s despair: Her children didn’t seem like slow
learners to her. At home, they learned everything she taught them, quickly and easily. She read to
them constantly, from the books that she herself had loved as a child. Aesop’s Fables and stories from
1,001 Arabian Nights were family favorites. The children filled the house with the sounds of the
songs, prayers, games, and rhymes they had learned from their parents and grandparents. They were
smart children, eager to learn. They learned quickly—in Spanish.
16A radical idea began to form in Lupe’s mind. Maybe the school was wrong about her children. And
if the school system could be wrong about her children—maybe it had been wrong about her, too.
17Lupe visited her children’s school, a daring action for her. “Many Hispanic parents would not
dream of going to the classroom,” she said. “In Hispanic culture, the teacher is regarded as a third
parent, as an ultimate authority. To question her would seem most disrespectful, as though you were
saying that she didn’t know her job.” That was one reason Lupe’s grandparents had not interfered
when Lupe was classified as retarded. “Anglo teachers often misunderstand Hispanic parents,
believing that they aren’t concerned about their children’s education because they don’t come visit the
schools,” Lupe said. “It’s not a lack of concern at all. It’s a mark of respect for the teacher’s authority.”
18At her children’s school, Lupe spoke to three different teachers. Two of them told her the same
thing: “Your children are just slow. Sorry, but they can’t learn.” A third offered a glimmer of hope. He
said, “They don’t know how to function in English. It’s possible that if you spoke English at home
they would be able to do better.”
19Lupe pounced on that idea. “Where can I learn English?” she asked. The teacher shrugged. At that
time there were no local English-language programs for adults. Finally he suggested that Lupe visit
the local high school. Maybe she would be permitted to sit in the back of a classroom and pick up
some English that way.
20Lupe made an appointment with a counselor at the high school. But when the two women met, the
counselor shook her head. “Your test scores show that you are retarded,” she told Lupe. “You’d just
be taking space in the classroom away from someone who could learn.”
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21Lupe’s next stop was the hospital where she had served for years as a volunteer. Could she sit in on
some of the nursing classes held there? No, she was told, not without a diploma. Still undeterred, she
went on to Texas Southmost College in Brownsville. Could she sit in on a class? No; no high-school
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diploma. Finally she went to the telephone company, where she knew operators were being trained.
Could she listen in on the classes? No, only high-school graduates were permitted.
22That day, leaving the telephone company, Lupe felt she had hit bottom. She had been terrified in
the first place to try to find an English class. Meeting with rejection after rejection nearly destroyed
what little self-confidence she had. She walked home in the rain, crying. “I felt like a big barrier had
fallen across my path,” she said. “I couldn’t go over it; I couldn’t go under it; I couldn’t go around it.”
23But the next day Lupe woke with fresh determination. “I was motivated by love of my kids,” she
said. “I was not going to quit.” She got up; made breakfast for her kids, husband, and grandparents;
saw her children and husband off for the day; and started out again. “I remember walking to the bus
stop, past a dog that always scared me to death, and heading back to the college. The lady I spoke to
said, ‘I told you, we can’t do anything for you without a high-school degree.’ But as I left the building,
I went up to the first Spanish-speaking student I saw. His name was Gabito. I said, ‘Who really makes
the decisions around here?’ He said,‘ The registrar.’” Since she hadn’t had any luck in the office
building, Lupe decided to take a more direct approach. She asked Gabito to point out the registrar’s
car in the parking lot. For the next two hours she waited beside it until its owner showed up.
Lupe enjoys a story with her twin grandchildren, Alyssa and Christian, and a visiting friend.
24Impressed by Lupe’s persistence, the registrar listened to her story. But instead of giving her
permission to sit in on a class and learn more English, he insisted that she sign up for a full college
load. Before she knew it, she was enrolled in four classes: basic math, basic English, psychology, and
typing. The registrar’s parting words to her were, “Don’t come back if you don’t make it through.”
25With that “encouragement,” Lupe began a semester that was part nightmare, part dream come true.
Every day she got her husband and children off to school, took the bus to campus, came home to
make lunch for her husband and grandparents, went back to campus, and was home in time to greet
Victor, Mario, and Martha when they got home from school. In the evenings she cooked, cleaned, did
laundry, and got the children to bed. Then she would study, often until three in the morning.
26“Sometimes in class I would feel sick with the stress of it,” she said. “I’d go to the bathroom and
talk to myself in the mirror. Sometimes I’d say, 5What are you doing here? Why don’t you go home
and watch I Love Lucy?’”
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27But she didn’t go home. Instead, she studied furiously, using her Spanish-English dictionary,
constantly making lists of new words she wanted to understand. “I still do that today,” she said.
“When I come across a word I don’t know, I write it down, look it up, and write sentences using it
until I own that word.”
28Although so much of the language and subject matter was new to Lupe, one part of the college
experience was not. That was the key skill of reading, a skill Lupe possessed. As she struggled with
English, she found the reading speed, comprehension, and vocabulary that she had developed in
Spanish carrying over into her new language. “Reading,” she said, “reading was the vehicle. Although
I didn’t know it at the time, when I was a girl learning to love to read, I was laying the foundation for
academic success.”
29She gives credit, too, to her Hispanic fellow students. “At first, they didn’t know what to make of
me. They were eighteen years old, and at that time it was very unfashionable for an older person to be
in college. But once they decided I wasn’t a ‘plant’ from the administration, they were my greatest
help.” The younger students spent hours helping Lupe, explaining unfamiliar words and terms,
coaching her, and answering her questions.
30That first semester passed in a fog of exhaustion. Many mornings. Lupe doubted she could get out
of bed, much less care for her family and tackle her classes. But when she thought of her children and
what was at stake for them, she forced herself on. She remembers well what those days were like.
“Just a day at a time. That was all I could think about. I could make myself get up one more day,
study one more day, cook and clean one more day. And those days eventually turned into a semester.”
31To her own amazement perhaps as much as anyone’s, Lupe discovered that she was far from
retarded. Although she sweated blood over many assignments, she completed them. She turned them
in on time. And, remarkably, she made the dean’s list her very first semester.
32After that, there was no stopping Lupe Quintanilla. She soon realized that the associate’s degree
offered by Texas Southmost College would not satisfy her. Continuing her Monday, Wednesday, and
Friday schedule at Southmost, she enrolled for Tuesday and Thursday courses at Pan American
University, a school 140 miles from Brownsville. Within three years, she had earned both her junior
college degree and a bachelor’s degree in biology. She then won a fellowship that took her to graduate
school at the University of Houston, where she earned a master’s degree in Spanish literature. When
she graduated, the university offered her a job as director of the Mexican-American studies program.
While in that position, she earned a doctoral degree in education.
33How did she do it all? Lupe herself isn’t sure. “I hardly know. When I think back to those years, it
seems like a life that someone else lived.” It was a rich and exciting but also very challenging period
for Lupe and her family. On the one hand, Lupe was motivated by the desire to set an example for her
children, to prove to them that they could succeed in the English-speaking academic world. On the
other hand, she worried about neglecting her family. She tried hard to attend important activities, such
as parents’ meetings at school and her children’s sporting events. But things didn’t always work out.
Lupe still remembers attending a baseball game that her older son, Victor, was playing in. When
Victor came to bat, he hit a home run. But as the crowd cheered and Victor glanced proudly over at
his mother in the stands, he saw she was studying a textbook. “I hadn’t seen the home run,” Lupe
admitted. “That sort of thing was hard for everyone to take.”
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34Although Lupe worried that her children would resent her busy schedule, she also saw her success
reflected in them as they blossomed in school. She forced herself to speak English at home, and their
language skills improved quickly. She read to them in English instead of Spanish—gulping down her
pride as their pronunciation became better than hers and they began correcting her. (Once the children
were in high school and fluent in English, Lupe switched back to Spanish at home, so that the children
would be fully comfortable in both languages.) “I saw the change in them almost immediately,” she
said. “After I helped them with their homework, they would see me pulling out my own books and
going to work, In the morning, I would show them the papers I had written. As I gained confidence,
so did they.” By the next year, the children had been promoted out of the Yellow Birds.
Lupe surrounded by her children: Martha, Victor, and Mario.
35Even though Victor, Mario, and Martha all did well academically, Lupe realized she could not
assume that they would face no more obstacles in school. When Mario was in high school, for
instance, he wanted to sign up for a debate class. Instead, he was assigned to woodworking. She
visited the school to ask why. Mario’s teacher told her, “He’s good with his hands. He’ll be a great
carpenter, and that’s a good thing for a Mexican to be.” Controlling her temper, Lupe responded, “I’m
glad you think he’s good with his hands. He’ll be a great physician someday, and he is going to be in
the debate class.”
36Today, Lupe Quintanilla teaches at the University of Houston, where she has developed several
dozen courses concerning Hispanic literature and culture. Her cross-cultural training for law
enforcement officers, which helps bring police and firefighters and local Hispanic communities closer
together, is renowned throughout the country. Former President Ronald Reagan named her to a
national board that keeps the White House informed of new programs in law enforcement. She has
received numerous awards for teaching excellence, and there is even a scholarship named in her
honor. Her name appears in the Hispanic Hall of Fame, and she has been co-chair of the White House
Commission on Hispanic Education.
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Two members of the Houston police department learn job-specific Spanish phrases from Lupe. Lupe
also trains the officers in cultural awareness.
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37The love of reading that her grandfather instilled in Lupe is still alive. She thinks of him every year
when she introduces to her students one of his favorite poets, Amado Nervo. She requires them to
memorize these lines from one of Nervo’s poems: “When I got to the end of my long journey in life, I
realized that I was the architect of my own destiny.” Of these lines, Lupe says, “That is something
that I deeply believe, and I want my students to learn it before the end of their long journey. We create
our own destiny.”
38Her love of reading and learning has helped Lupe create a distinguished destiny. But none of the
honors she has received means more to her than the success of her own children, the reason she made
that frightening journey to seek classes in English years ago. Today Mario is a physician. Victor and
Martha are lawyers, both having earned doctor of law degrees. And so today, Lupe likes to say,
“When someone calls the house and asks for ‘Dr. Quintanilla,’ I have to ask, ‘Which one?’ There are
four of us—one retarded and three slow learners.”
READING COMPREHENSION
1. The word flourished in “Lupe’s own love of reading flourished during these years. Her
vocabulary was enriched and her imagination fired by the novels she read” (paragraph 11)
means
1. grew.
2. stood still.
3. was lost.
4. remained.
2. The word instilled in “The love of reading that Lupe’s grandfather instilled in Lupe is still
alive” (paragraph 37) means
1. frightened.
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2. established.
3. forced.
4. forgot.
3. Which of the following would be a good alternative title for this selection?
1. Difficulties Facing Spanish-Speaking Students
2. Unfair Labeling
3. Balancing School and Family
4. A Courageous Mother’s Triumph
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4. Which sentence best expresses the main idea of the selection?
1. Lupe, a first-grade dropout, eventually earned a doctoral degree and created a
professional career.
2. Lupe Quintanilla’s experience proves that the educational system has been set up to
accommodate non-English-speaking children.
3. Through hard work and persistence combined with a love of reading and learning, Lupe
has created a distinguished career and helped her children become professionals.
4. In school, Spanish-speaking students may experience obstacles as they aim for
professional careers.
5. Lupe realized that her children were not retarded when
1. they got good grades at school.
2. she saw how quickly they learned at home.
3. they were put in the group called “Yellow Birds.”
4. they read newspapers, poetry, and novels to her.
6. Lupe’s training for law enforcement officers
1. teaches them to speak Spanish.
2. teaches Hispanic literature and culture.
3. offers a scholarship named in her honor.
4. brings police, firefighters, and local Hispanic communities together.
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7. According to Lupe, Hispanic parents rarely visit their children’s schools because they
1. do not consider schoolwork important.
2. think doing so would be disrespectful to the teacher.
3. are ashamed of their English language skills.
4. are usually working during school visitation hours.
8. “Once they arrived in Brownsville, Lupe was enrolled in school. Although she understood no
English, she was given an IQ test in that language. Not surprisingly, she didn’t do very well”
(paragraph 5). From these sentences, we might conclude that
1. an IQ test in a language that the person tested doesn’t know is useless.
2. although Lupe was not very intelligent at first, she became more intelligent once she
learned English.
3. Lupe really did know English.
4. there are no IQ tests in Spanish.
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9. We might conclude from the reading that
1. a school system’s judgment about an individual is always accurate.
2. it is often better for a child to stay home rather than attend school.
3. by paying attention and speaking up, parents may remove obstacles to their children’s
education.
4. working parents should accept the fact that they cannot attend important events in their
children’s lives.
10. The last line of the reading suggests that
1. retarded people can become successful professionals.
2. people should not blindly accept other people’s opinions of them.
3. Lupe’s children are smarter than she is.
4. all of the above
STRUCTURE AND TECHNIQUE
1. Johnson begins the essay by listing Lupe Quintanilla’s accomplishments, then revealing that
Quintanilla was once classified as retarded. What introductory technique is Johnson employing?
Why is it effective here?
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2. Paragraphs 3–11 are devoted to the first fifteen years of Lupe’s life. But the next decade or so is
covered in only two paragraphs (12–13). Why might Johnson have presented Lupe’s earlier life
in so much more detail? Do you agree with her decision?
3. In paragraph 2, Johnson writes that “[Lupe’s] school records state that she is retarded….” But in
the next sentence, she writes, “How did Lupe Quintanilla; ‘retarded’ nonlearner, become Dr.
Quintanilla, respected educator?” Why does Johnson put the word “retarded” in quotation
marks in the second sentence; but not in the first? What is she implying? Can you find another
place where Johnson makes similar use of quotation marks?
4. At one point, Johnson switches from the topic of Lupe’s success in college to the topic of the
challenges that continued to face her children in school. In what paragraph does she make that
switch? What transitional words does she use to alert the reader to her new direction?
CRITICAL READING AND DISCUSSION
1. In the course of the essay, what characteristics and attitudes does Lupe suggest are typical of
Hispanic culture? Does she seem sympathetic, critical, or neutral about those qualities or
attitudes? How has she dealt with cultural expectations in her own life?
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2. How has Lupe handled the question of what language to use with her children? If you grew up
in a two-language household, how did your family deal with the issue? How would you
approach the issue with children of your own?
3. Do you think Lupe’s grandfather was right in allowing her to quit school? What factors do you
imagine might have gone into his decision?
4. Lupe credits her fellow Hispanic students with giving her valuable support in college. Is there
anyone in your life—a teacher, family member, or friend—who has helped you through
challenging times in your education? Explain what obstacles you faced and how this person
helped you overcome them.
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
Assignment 1
Write an essay that takes as its thesis one of the following statements:
• Schools need to be prepared to help non-English-speaking students catch up with other students
at their grade level.
• The responsibility for catching non-English-speaking students up to their grade level rests
solely with the students and their families.
• Support your thesis with several points, each developed in its own paragraph.
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Assignment 2
Lupe Quintanilla is an outstanding example of someone who has taken charge of her life. She has
been, to echo the poet whose work she teaches, the architect of her own destiny. Choose a person you
know who, in your opinion, has done a fine job of taking charge of his or her own destiny. Write an
essay about this person. You might describe three areas of life in which the person has taken control.
Alternatively, you might narrate three incidents from the person’s life that illustrate his or her
admirable self-determination.
Assignment 3
Lupe had to struggle in order to balance her school responsibilities with her duties as a wife and
mother. Write an essay in which you identify aspects of your life that you need to juggle along with
your responsibilities as a student. They may include a job, a spouse or significant other, children,
housekeeping duties, pets, extracurricular activities, a difficult living situation, or anything else that
poses a challenge to your academics. Provide vivid, real-life illustrations of how each of those
responsibilities sometimes conflicts with your studies.
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