Sammi Updegraf

English 111
Vandermey
Rhetorical Critique
Paolo Freires The Banking Concept of Education was a little hard for me to
follow, honestly. I felt as though his intended audience was either other scholars
who would understand his style of writing, or uneducated people who would marvel
at his use of big words. There didnt seem to be an intended audience in between, a
middle-class, if you will. He seemed to repeat himself a lot in trying to get his
point across. Im not sure if this was just because he is passionate about it, or if he
truly feels the need to repeat himself THAT many times. This excerpt almost
seemed like it was manufactured for the sole purpose of furthering his own political
agenda. To bully those he was opposing. If that was Freires intended purpose, and if
the majority of people reading it were in his intended audience, then I think he did
well with his writing and using language to his advantage. His sente4nces were4
long and his words were big.
I still unsure as to whether or not there was ANY use of actual evidence or
not. There was no research on the subject. There were no tests results from the
school districts showing students progress versus the progress of students learning
with a problem-oriented curriculum, nothing. It seemed to me as it was just
Freires personal opinion repeated with diferent words. It was almost like he was
dragging his point out for as long as he possibly couled. As for Freires word choices
and how long all of his sentences were, it almost felt like the old adage If you cant
dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit. I think Freire was sincerely
trying to get his point across, but adding big words and complex sentences to
baffle people when his point didnt come across strong enough.

Sammi Updegraf
English 111
Vandermey
Freire seems to like to play on peoples emotions in this writing. I think he
uses peoples anger in this one to get a rise out of people, to get emotions. By
objectifying people and relating them to recepticles, I feel as though Freire was
banking on people getting ofended and rebelling against being objectified like
they were mindless, brainless things. I myself got quite ofended when I read this
article. I was mostly angry when the thought that this was only political
propaganda. That really insulted me and my intelligence. I wonder if other people
felt the same way while they were reading this article? Were people as insulted as I
was? Why would Freire use this book as his political propaganda if he truly cared
about people and their education?