Rocket Boys

Rocket Boys

When I started to read this book, I didn’t really know anything about it and wondered what to expect. As I have stated previously, I have never really enjoyed reading as a hobby and have found most books that have been assigned in schools to be rather dry and boring. This book started out the same way for me. It was very difficult because it seemed to take a while to really get into the story.

However, once the book really got going, it was very interesting and inspiring how Homer, who was never really into school prior to building the rockets, found a subject that interested him and really put his mind to it. By working hard and not letting anyone tell him he couldn’t succeed at building a successful rocket, and with the help of his friends and the community of Coalwood, he was able to use this passion he had for rockets to get him into a better situation than mining.

I thought the fact that he stood up to everyone who didn’t believe in him, including his parents, principal, and classmates and kept his ambition to eventually create something as successful as he did and win the science fair proves a valuable lesson to both students in school who might read this but also teachers in the classroom as well. Homer’s story of success proves that just because you are dealt one hand in life, doesn’t require you to go down that road. With the ambition to succeed and do something else with your life, you can become anything you want in life through hard work. For many students in schools today, this is a very important lesson for them to learn. Many students come from poverty or bad situations at home. The idea that they can escape these conditions and make a better life for themselves if they really want it is a far greater lesson than anything from a textbook.

I thought Rocket Boys provided a great lesson for teachers in schools as well. Without the encouragement and dedication that Homer’s teacher had for him and her students, Homer may have never felt it possible for him to earn a scholarship to college and might have settled for working in the coalmines his whole life. She encouraged him to find something of interest to him. While he wasn’t a great student before he got interested in rockets, understanding the math that went along with building and launching the rockets encouraged him to learn and he became able to understand the formulas even more complex than what they were studying in school. This shows teachers that using example problems and real world applications that students are interested in is truly important for the students abilities to learn information and even be willing to learn.

Rocket Boys inspired me as a teacher to really understand my students and their interests and try to make learning as fun for them as possible. You never know whose life path you may change with kind words and encouragement that they have a shot to succeed and change the life path they were dealt.

Hickam Jr., H. (1998). Rocket boys. New York, NY: Dell Publishing.