David Wallace

The commencement speech written by David Wallace is not the typical speech given to college students on graduation day, which already made me find it very interesting. I really enjoyed this speech because it made me think a lot, and I learned some important values that Wallace shares. His main focus is the real value of an education that you intake from the world around you, while having an aware, focused, and disciplined conscious. If you approached the world in this manner in every situation, Wallace says that, “That is real freedom, That is being educated, and understanding how to think.” He says that humans have natural default settings, that are unconscious which leads us to analyze situations or other humans without really realizing what truly is going on. He gives us an example of this when he tells the story of a fatigued, hungry, and stressed out adult who is in line at the grocery store. Being all these things, the adult unconsciously views everything and everyone around him according to himself and his mood. Wallace says, “If I don't make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to, I’m gonna be pissed and miserable every time I have to shop.” His point is, if you actually make the decision to have the freedom to be aware, then you will live you life happier.

I have certainly taken a lot of Wallace’s advice, and do agree that there are times where I have made unconscious thoughts because I have lacked the effort to try and think. I want to be more aware and be able to give myself a choice to look differently at life, and to just think instead. If I am more conscious and aware, then I believe it will open me up to more things in life. I agree with Wallace when he says it will be tough to over come these natural default settings, but I believe it is well worth it.

The "Banking" Concept of Education

The “Banking” Concept of Education was a really interesting piece that I felt that I could relate to being an everyday student.  Freire states that, “students are depositories and the teacher is the depositor” (318) In the traditional banking type of teaching. Many of my classes are like this, where the teacher lectures the whole period without getting any input from the students. I find that during these classes that I am not exceeding my potential of learning, because I am not fully engaged in what is going on. I find classes where the teacher encourages the students to be more involved are more successful in the long run. The problem-posing method allows students to become “Critical co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher” (Freire, 324) In our English class we are encouraged to express our thoughts through the blogs and the classroom. In both of these situations we are able to create opinions of our own, along with a feedback from the teacher.