Richard Rodriguez and Paolo Friere write of education as the core factor in one's life. They feel that education itself lends people to either "achieve" greatness or fall into the majority of "bankers." "The Achievement of Desire" by Rodriguez and "The Banking Concept of Education" by Friere greatly resemble each other; however, they also differ on some points. Despite their differences, both texts come to the same conclusion – education makes a person who he/she can become.
             Rodriguez and Paolo both state that education is vital for success. Rodriquez writes that he is the way he is because of his education. A key element that they both speak of is banking education. Paolo feels that this type of education is almost useless. Banking is no more than just listening to someone speak at you and then regurgitating the information. This does nothing to better education or society itself. If no new ideas are ever surfaced, then progress will never occur. Rodriguez agrees with this when he writes of when he was the same as everyone else until he started to analyze texts and paraphrase more than just summarize. This made him the "scholarship boy" that he was. By learning to use his education wisely and make connections between different texts, he heightened his intelligence. Rodriguez is known as he is today because of his ability to step back; out of the present situation or environment and reflect on it almost immediately. Both speak about education in the context of the student-teacher relationship. The banking theory of education only allows for the teacher to rule over the classroom and allows for little interaction with students. Banking turns students into "receptacles," bins that are crammed with information that the teacher chooses to fill them with. "Education thus becomes an act of depositing." This poses a problem and does not allow for any actual th...