Version Control

For this essay, the skillset that you are learning is to control two sources equally, blending them into one cohesive argument and analysis. To do this, you will be discussing how the one text Chinua Achebe’s “Dead Men’s Path.” resounds with the ideas in Freire’s “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education.” In other words, this is somewhat similar to a “compare and contrast”, but more in-depth: instead of just a simple compare and contrast such as “this author says this, but the other author says that,” you will be going deeper into how/why these ideas differ, where they converge, how they might influence one another, and whether the ideas build on each other. A good way to think of it is to put the two authors in conversation with each other about the theories and practice of education. While these authors are talking about similar issues within education, they aren’t making identical arguments–instead, they are focusing on specific ideas that are of particular interest to them. Your task is to discuss how these authors’ ideas compare to one another in terms of what they say about education. Basing your ideas on their texts, some questions you might ask yourself in order to put them into the conversation are: Is your chosen text’sauthor building on the thoughts of Freire? Do they take different perspectives on the shared topic, and how? How do their ideas reflect one another? Where do they depart from one another? What does each author say about each of your chosen claims? Do they disagree, and why? Where is there common ground? How would they suggest moving forward? Don’t feel like you need to answer every single one of these questions–they are just some things to think about as a jumping-off point to start brainstorming about how these ideas relate to one another. Your thesis statement (argument and claims) should incorporate both texts into a discussion about the education system, educational philosophy/pedagogy, classroom dynamics.