David Foster Wallace "Address to Keynon College"

Wallace centers his speech around his thought of significant education not being "the capacity to think, but rather the choice of what to think about". I completely agree. In the modern day American education system the curriculum is already planned by higher ups before the teacher even has a chance to greet his new round of students. The teacher is limited to teach only what he is expected to teach and therefore the students are limited to think only what they are expected to think. Even though not purposefully intended to occur, many times a closed-mindness sense of thought is created. As Wallace mentioned, people get stuck in the same day to day thoughts and become prisoners to their own egotistical thoughts. I can say that personally I catch myself doing that far too often for my liking. I often forget that there are other people in the world going through more difficult situations than my own. I blindly compare my horrible day to a woman who's day was just shattered by the news of her house going into foreclosure. Wallace made it clear that I am in command of my thoughts. That I can make my negative pesky thoughts into considerate meaningful thoughts. That I can choose to live day by day in a dreadful world or I can choose to spend my time conjuring up sincere and thoughtful awareness of the world.

I enjoyed reading this article and gaining some insight into another form of a "real" education. I thank Wallace for starting a new trend in my thoughts also for showing me that in the end I get to decided what thoughts have meaning and what thoughts do not.

Banking Concept of Education

I understand Freire's concerns with the banking concept. In todays education system many teachers are under the pressure to produce impressive numbers, but are also given difficult situations that may limit their ability to teach effectively. So to meet the expectations they often take short cuts when teaching. Instead of thoroughly going over concepts and methods, to ensure that a student is comprehending the material, they will instead quickly look through the material and teach the very basics of what they need to know. The students often recognize what is expected of them and work minimally to fully comprehend the subject, but instead work to memorize the facts and what is essential to know for the next "big" test. Once that test is done with and the teachers see an outcome they are comfortable with they will move on to the next lecture and the students will move on to the next set of facts to memorize. I can relate completely to the banking concept, because now that I look back at my high school education that is all it was. I would learn the material, study hours on end, ace the test, and then forget about everything is just jammed into my brain. I do not think that was a proper way to learn now that I find myself at a university that everyday challenges my critical thinking. Somewhere in the four years of high school I lost my sense of critical thinking. I was no longer asked to question what was being taught, or to express my opinions and concerns. This is where I agree with Freire. Not being able to think critically or outside of the box does oppress oneself in the sense of education. The banking concept inhibits creative thinking and instead "deposit facts". I believe that my memorization approach to learning has limited me in many ways that I was unaware of before coming to college. I find myself having difficulties writing and appropriately answering professors when they ask me to think critically of different subjects and topics. Something I now have to work towards to be a successful student.