In the introduction of a book a reader is usually revealed to a table of contents. In my E-portfolio introduction you’re going to be revealed to a series of ideas that construct my table of contents. In this E-portfolio you will be introduced to several forms of texts such as, Paulo Freire’s “The Banking Concept of Education”, Richard Rodriguez’s “Achievement of Desire” and other forms of literature from authors such as Richard Hoggart, Alexander Kapp, and Malcolm Knowles. I want to reveal, “you” the reader to not just different literatures that are focused around the idea of education, but also different types of media that support it as well. Several films such as “Lean on Me” a 1989 production as well as “Dangerous Minds” a 1995 production have great significance to the idea of valuing education. They allow me to portray my ideas visually for you to grasp and perceive all the information being thrown at you. I want to make you see the many struggles “Education” as a whole has not only endured but has sir come to from the moment it began, to its current standards.

Education as a whole is an idea or practice that even before having institutions that offer academia was being practiced among even the least developed individuals. Education without it being actually defined as “education” seemed to exist throughout the whole world. There have been countless forms of different cultures that have inhabited the idea of education without actually being educated within the standard “teacher” and “student” method. Individuals before didn’t have the resources to find or acquire education so, just as we do to this day –we teach ourselves, as they did before. It doesn’t matter what type of instruction or form of information was being passed down to others, the basis of the story was that it was indeed education. The nomadic lifestyle began tribes and clans who practiced their traditions, beliefs, and values. The ancient civilizations in Egypt had begun their own form of writing – hieroglyphics. In India, they based their education on incantations and chants which lead to texts and scriptures. As our civilizations matured so did our education and in result we have civilization between man and woman.

In a text titled “The Banking Concept of Education” by Paulo Freire, I got to see his insight towards what the current system of Education is and what idea it seems to embody. Freire also discusses the idea of problem-posing education which in my eyes seems to be is a fused version of the banking concept, without the faults he acknowledges in the text which he identifies to be areas of tarnished knowledge, which instead are replaced with its own solutions. Freire highlights the idea that the banking concept seems to lead the subject to being “receptacles that need to be filled” (Freire, 318). This idea that he presents the reader is then backed up with the idea of consciousness. Freire then leads to show how the two ideas come in contact with each other but are never perceived by the subject and therefore leave the subject with “lack of creativity and transformation” (Freire, 319). He introduces his essay with this concept and leads the reader towards understanding how the process of depositing information seems to lead the student to not be “fully human” or even inhabiting the ideal persona of an “automaton”.

Freire’s claims and theories seem to have particular significance to idea of education as a whole because in many ways his theories to me seem to portray the education system perfectly. Although, he also lacks substance within his theories because he doesn’t show the reader true experiences or examples of the education system which he judges, and the education system that he praises. So why doesn’t Freire provide us with his own problem-posing education scenario? Can an education system indeed work without the faults? Is it truly our education system that supports the idea of depositing or is it the idea of education that inhabits that result?  

The Achievement of Desire by Richard Rodriguez depicts the struggle of a man who now in his thirties realizes the primary reason for his success in his academics was that he was constantly reminded that his schooling was changing him and separating him from his family and personal life, before becoming a student. Rodriguez defines the type of student he considers to be when describing his encounter with Richard Hoggart's The Uses of Literacy; he found a description of a "scholarship boy". With the realization that he was not the only one that was struggling with acquiring academic success and dealing with the consequent price, he was able to grasp the meaning of what it meant to shift from opposing environments, classroom and home.

We will also discuss the connections with the surroundings that inhabit a students education with two films. “Lean On Me” a 1989 production shines significance on the struggles that students experience outside of schoolwork and within their ability to focus on attaining an education. This film in particular is a true story which highlights the many battles Eastside High experienced.  “Lean On Me” is based on a true story of a principal in the New Jersey high school. The Principal, Joe Clark, is hired in 1983 to run one of the worst schools in this state, which he previously had been principal of but had got fired due to a corrupted decision within the teachers. His mission was to turn this crime, drug, and graffiti infested school around completely in one year’s time. Clark must bring order and peace to this school and must also bring up the learning level of the students so they can pass the state’s minimum basic skills test. This goal was much harder than it had seemed, the school had been a completely different establishment than what he had left behind years ago.

Another film titled "Dangerous Minds" a 1995 production, discusses the lives of students of whom the education system has given up hope for. In this movie the instructor Mrs.LouAnne Johnson (Michelle Pfeiffer), undergoes many struggles with trying to reach out to the students who have gotten shunned to being considered "rejects from Hell" by other teachers. As Mrs. Johnson connects with he class she begins to realize the struggles that inhabit their lives and begins to connect with them individually and attempts to confront other officials in the school for their help with trying to make her students see they are still acknowledged as students as well. Throughout the movie we see her trying to adjust their outside struggles with negative influences such as drugs, gangs and just having got intertwined with the wrong people, in an effort to have their focus in the classroom.

I want viewers to grasp onto the reality that exists within education, its faults, its benefits, its consciousness, and its influence whether good or bad. There are many different sides to education and these different sectors within films, instructional theories, policies, and even personal experiences, can help reinforce the areas of improvement. So, as you continue venturing off into this endless abyss of education E-Portfolio, ask yourself this "What were/are my your education complications?" and then try to answer why that was.... Could it have been answered with Paulo Freire's "The Banking Concept of Education" or in Richard Rodriguez's "The Achievement of Desire", maybe Knowles or Kapp touched on it when discussing their theories within adult education.