NOW HERE’S THE ASSIGNMENT:
In the essay “Realizing the Dream of a Black University” and the chapter from the book Pedagogy of the
Oppressed, Toni Cade Bambara and Paulo Freire offer strong and, some would say, controversial
analyses of the educational systems that they each worked in. Just as important, they offer concrete
arguments about how education might work differently, based on both their experience and their analysis.
To make and support their arguments, Bambara and Freire use a number of different approaches and
writing techniques. For your essay, I will ask you to write about some of the techniques used by Bambara
and Freire to build their arguments and support their alternative suggestions; how exactly they bring
different techniques together; and whether or not you think they use these techniques effectively and as a
result make convincing arguments.
Begin your essay by briefly summarizing what you see as Bambara’s and Freire’s main arguments in
their respective texts (each of these summaries should be no longer than one paragraph long); this would
also be a place to introduce and define a few key terms that they use, like Bambara’s idea that the
university should act as a “buttress” for students (you should look up the word, since she’s intentionally
using a term that might not be familiar), or Freire’s definition of what he calls “the banking concept of
education.” Next, examine and analyze at least three specific passages (ideally ranging from one to three
sentences long) from each of these two texts, looking in detail at the ways that each author builds her or
his argument. Here are some questions you can think about asking for your analysis:
• How does each writer use quotations from other books and articles?
• How does each use information from other experts?
• How does each use first-hand accounts of their own experiences, or the personal experiences of others?
• How does each writer use statistics?
• How does each use historical information?
• How does each use the arguments of those who might disagree with her?
With each of these approaches, be sure to also answer these questions: Does each writer use this
approach or technique effectively? Why or why not? As you move towards your conclusion, start to
answer some important questions: Do you find the arguments made by Bambara and Freire to be
effective and convincing? Why or why not, based on your careful reading? Do you find one to be more effective and convincing than the other? Again, why or why not? In other words, I expect you
to work closely with specific passages from Bambara’s and Freire’s texts throughout this essay, but I also
want you to bring in your own point of view regarding how effectively they use different techniques, and
especially how persuasive you find their arguments to be as a result.
While your essay should focus on a close reading of Bambara’s and Freire’s texts, I would also like you to draw on your own educational experiences, or the first-hand experiences of people you know, to analyze their texts. Bambara’s essay was published in 1969, and Freire’s book was published in 1970;
that gives you the opportunity to address whether things have changed since the time they wrote their analyses—or, on the other hand, whether certain of their arguments continue to be relevant more than
fifty years later. You can draw on your own experiences to agree with and support Bambara’s and Freire’s arguments; on the other hand, you might use your first-hand knowledge to disagree with and
contradict Bambara’s and Freire’s texts and their conclusions. Similarly, you can draw on the two short articles that we read—Jasmine Liu’s “How to Save a Community College” and Susan Kang’s “CUNY
Is the People’s University. Austerity Is Killing It”—to think about whether Bambara’s and/or Freire’s arguments are applicable to the situation of CUNY today
