Rodriguez's essay is about how he learned and thrived in an educational environment that Freire considered oppressive. Rodriguez explains in his essay that he did very well in school and achieved success after success. He also read a large amount of literature and began doing so when he was in fourth grade with titles like Iliad and Moby Dick. Although he enjoyed reading, it was the praise of those who taught him that mattered more than anything else. He needed the teachers' approval so much that “any book they told [him] to read, [he] read – then waited for [him] to tell [him] which books [he] liked” (Rodriguez, 518 -519). Two years later, he gave another example of the "banking" concept when he began discussing what gives books their value: the themes and main ideas expressed throughout their pages. Rodriguez goes on to say, “[i]f this fundamental essence could be harnessed and memorized, I would become learned like my teachers” (526). ). It is this way of thinking that created his dichotomy between family life and school life.