The document summarizes three essays: Freire's "The 'Banking' Concept of Education", Rodriguez's "The Achievement of Desire", and Griffin's "Our Secret". It analyzes how each essay demonstrates the effects that education can have on society. Freire introduces the "banking" concept where teachers deposit information into students. Rodriguez exemplifies becoming an "automaton" who strictly follows this concept. Griffin discusses how Himmler's strict education caused him to lose his humanity. The document argues that while education aims to benefit students, the banking concept and strict authoritarian styles can negatively impact people by reducing creativity and individuality.

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Sierra Gettys
Mr. Pittman
ENG-111-823HY
April 27, 2016
Capstone Essay
Has anyone ever stopped to think about how education actually pressures society? The
three essays Freire’s “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education”, Rodriguez’s “The Achievement of
Desire”, and Griffin’s “Our Secret” gives us examples of what education does to society. “The
‘Banking’ Concept” shows that most of the teachers today go by what is called the banking
concept. “The Achievement of Desire” gives insight into the world of a student that followed the
banking concept. “Our Secret” demonstrates the effects of what the “banking” concept of
education can do to society.
After Freire does his research to analyze the relationship between teachers and students,
he finds that the teachers are using what is called the “banking” concept. Freire quotes,
“Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the
teacher the depositor,” implying that the banking concept asks that students to receive, file, and
store information like a bank (216). However, a student can memorize the information without
learning the true meaning behind it. Freire demonstrates this idea when he points out that “The
student records, memorizes, and repeats these phrases without perceiving what four times four
really means, or realizing the true significance of ‘capital’ in the affirmation ‘the capital of Pará
is Belém’” (216). The definition of knowledge use to be, “the fact or condition of knowing
something with familiarity gained through experience or association,” but the teachers believe
that knowledge is something that can be forced on people. Freire shows his point by saying, “In
the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider

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themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing” (216). The teachers
also change the definition of knowledge by choosing what the students should learn and
practically forcing the students to adapt to it. How can someone force knowledge upon someone
and expect them to adapt to it?
When Freire realizes there is a better method for education he introduced the idea of
problem-posing education. He proposes that the idea of problem-posing education can change
education. He explains this idea by saying, “Indeed, problem-posing education, which breaks
with the vertical patterns characteristics of banking education, can fulfill its functions as the
practice of freedom, only if it can overcome the above contradiction” (Freire 222). After they
eliminate the deposit-making that was turning students into automations Freire finds that
communication can change the perspective of both students and teachers. Freire concludes this
by stating,” Through dialogue, the teacher-of-the-students and the students-of-the-teacher cease
to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with students-teacher. The teacher is no longer
merely the-one-who-teaches, but one who is himself to be taught in dialogue with the students,
who in turn while being taught also teach. They become jointly responsible for a process in
which all grow” (Freire 222). The difference between the banking concept and the problem-
posing education is that in one there is a superior that thinks just because they have a title they
know everything. While the other shows that instead of having one person being in charge if they
are equal that they can grow together.
In the essay, “The Achievement of Desire” Rodriguez was a perfect example of a student
that followed the concept of the “banking” concept. He followed the teacher’s instruction down
to the very word. Therefore, he believed that the teachers were his inspiration and success.
Rodriguez claims this by saying, “With every award, each graduation from one level of

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education to the next, people Id meet would congratulate me. Their refrain [was] always the
same: ‘Your parents must be very proud.’ Sometimes then they’d ask me how I managed it —my
‘success.’(How?) After a while, I had several quick answers to give in reply. I’d admit for one
thing, that I went to an excellent grammar school” (Rodriguez 338). Rodriguez starts to become
an automaton, meaning he was a robot and followed what his teacher says. He demonstrates this
by coming home from school and correcting his family’s grammar (Rodriguez 339). Rodriguez
was finally beginning to understand that education was tearing him away from his family and
changing who he used to be.
In Susan Griffin’s essay “Our Secret” it talks about a tragic event called “The
Holocaust”. During, the Holocaust over six million Jews were murdered inside the concentration
camps. However, Griffin interviewed a survivor she calls Laura. In the Holocaust Era no one
outside of Germany knew about the concentration camps because, Griffin claims a film was
made in Terezin concentration camps to deceive the nations about what was really happens to the
Jews (Griffin 234).
Griffin’s primary focus is on the life of Heinrich Himmler, head of Hitler’s secret police
and creator of the concentration camps. In describing Himmler’s life, she examines that
Himmler was different considering he saved a few lives with the secret meetings. In his younger
years Himmler’s father Gebhard, who was also his schoolmaster required him to keep a dairy.
Throughout his life his father would add words to his entries. Even though these were just minor
things. The way his father was teaching him began to change him. Himmler is a perfect example
of that education can potentially cause someone to lose themselves if pushed too hard. Griffin
demonstrates this by saying, “There was no reaching him at these moments. He was beyond any
kind of touch or remembering” (Griffin 249). Himmler shows that he is unable to bring himself

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to break the rules set forth by the Nazi party in order to be a human being, for instance, when he
fails to rescue an individual otherwise condemned to death for simply having Jewish family
(Griffin 255).
The way of looking at the three essays is like an equation. Freire plus Rodriguez equals
Griffin. Education today has changed over the years. Teachers use to be as Freire describes to be
dictators while the students followed like Rodriguez. Students have become teachers based of the
way they were taught. There have been cases where teachers forgot what it was like to be a
student and is extremely rough while some teachers remember what it was like to be a student
and changes their ways. The facts based on education today is that teachers and students are
supposed to be able to work together to process and grow. The more the teacher can relate and
communicate with the students they do better in school. However, if a student and teacher are
against each other they are setting each other up for failure. The impact education has on
teachers and students is phenomenal because of the impact it can have on one’s life.
Based on my educational experiences I have found that as you progress in the educational
world teachers become more and more egotistical. Beginning my kindergarten years the teachers
believed that I had some kind of speech impediment but it was because of anxiety. Throughout,
middle school and high school my teachers followed the whole banking concept. Some of the
teachers would expect us to write the notes and use them on a quiz or test. However, even if we
took the notes some of the students failed and the teacher would put us down by saying, “I
basically handed you the whole test in the notes and you fail.” Even if teacher follow the banking
concept like Freire talks about in “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education” why did we fail if we
took the notes. Could it have been because of the simple fact that teachers talk so fast sometimes
that the students can’t keep up. The banking” concept that happens in schools cannot really

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guarantee to be effective because some students might not be able to grasp a concept, even if it
follows the concepts of banking. The students can file, store and receive information like a bank
but not grasp it. That is what I discovered in my educational experience.
People in some cases do not see the impact that education has on society. The teachers
believe that education can only have good effects of the students they teach. However, the
teachers do not see that an education can also cause problems, like anxiety, or changing people,
who lose their creative freedom. Students that become “automatons” like Freire says will just be
robots and not follow their own path. All they will know is how to follow someone and do as
they are told. Education in the past use to be that the teacher was the boss and students were
taught in just one classroom with the teacher deciding what is to be taught. Now, education has
changed to where you go to different classrooms for different subjects and is taught by a
different teacher. Yes, you get more freedom but hopefully in the future we can develop Freire’s
problem-posing method more and make education even more fun for those who have difficulty
with teachers, and those who may suffer anxiety. Education is meant to be a gift not a curse.

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Works Cited
Freire, Paulo. "The "Banking" Concept of Education." Ways of Reading: An Anthology for
Writers. By David Bartholomae, Anthony Petrosky, and Stacey Waite. Tenth ed. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999. 216-26. Print.
Griffin, Susan. "Our Secret." Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. By David
Bartholomae, Anthony Petrosky, and Stacey Waite. Tenth ed. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin's, 1999. 233-64. Print.
Rodriguez, Richard. "The Achievement of Desire." Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers.
By David Bartholomae, Anthony Petrosky, and Stacey Waite. Tenth ed. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999. 338-55. Print.