Freire Rodrigquez
... Ward October 31,2002 English 111 Randall Cream In Richard Rodriguez’s essay The Achievement of Desire and in Paulo Freire’s essay The “Banking” Concept of Education, both authors condemn a form of education that Freire calls “Banking” yet at the same time Rodriguez acknowledges that this form of education (or lack of education) allows some individuals to flourish. ... Freire too believes this, although he fails to mention the term scholarship boy and he concentrates on the “banking” and problem-posing systems of education. His description of the “banking” system can be clearly defined in a nutshell as “the teacher issues communiqués and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat” (Freire). Freire goes so far as to call those who impose the “banking” system, namely educational administrators and teachers, oppressors. He states “the interests of the oppressors lie in “changing the consciousness of the oppressed…for the more the oppressed can be led to adapt…the more easily they can be dominated” (Freire). ... However, it can be said of Freire and his belief that the “banking” system is completely wrong that “there he stands like a stonewall. ... Freire on the other hand strongly believes that “banking theory and practice, as immobilizing and fixating forces, fail to acknowledge men and women as historical beings, and that problem-posing education allows “people to develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world in which they find themselves” (Freire). ... So, Freire is saying that the only way to receive an education and to be educated is to follow (and support) the problem-posing education. ... Although on the surface it may appear as if Freire and Rodriguez coincide in their views of what Freire calls the “banking” system of education, beneath the surface the evidence put forth by Rodriguez clearly shows that the “banking” system is not all bad. ... When one digs beneath the surface it is crystal clear that Freire has been incredibly influenced by his life experiences to the point that he hates the “banking” system.