Paulo Freire And Richard Rodriguez

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An Uncontrollable Shift As one advances in life, there will always be a slight, if not a complete turnaround, of a person’s identity within themselves. Whether from a spontaneous revelation, or a lifelong pursuit, the reshaping of one’s identity is a key point in a person’s life that can bring about drastic change in one’s everyday life, either socially or personally. In the texts of Paulo Freire and Richard Rodriguez, it is evident that identity is an abstract thing; a thing that can be influenced, shaped, and eventually concreted at a certain point of realization. It is under this “abstract” definition of identity that the reader can better understand what it really means to truly change what it is means to live. It is not a question of if a given person will experience a reshaping of identity; rather, it is a mere question of when and how it will occur. There is an immense amount of reasons for identity to suddenly become such an issue in a person’s life that he or she feels compelled to change and reshape their identity in order to fit an ever-changing lifestyle. From a student’s standpoint, such as the circumstances in Paulo Freire’s “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education”, it is easier to listen and memorize facts than to listen to those facts, apply them to the real world, and in turn gain personal knowledge, in order to move along in life. However, until such a student can come to the realization that knowledge provoked by the human thought will prevail over the “banking method”, as Freire defines, the student will continue to live under his/her former, un-matured, identity. In this case, the student’s reshaped identity, whenever it occurs, would most likely change him/her into a more “humanized” student, as Freire postulates. The underlying cause for changing identity might not be voluntary in all cases, though. As Richard Rodriguez writes in his text,
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