Jean Jacques Rousseau, in his essay Emile, discusses what he believes to be the proper essence of an education. The most effective form of education occurs when students are able to explore topics of their choice and are not subjected to learn the ideas that society chooses. One of his most important statements was that “the masterpiece of a good education is to make a reasonable man” (Rousseau 89). When given this appropriate education, man could flourish if placed in a debased society. This society becomes debased, as described in his The Social Contract, when the individual is placed over the general will. By nature, people are content and equal but it is society that causes inequality and discontent. Unfortunately, the society of today is, in fact, debased and Rousseau’s idea of the perfect pedagogy currently does not exist. In this essay, I will contend that higher education has been difficult to obtain and has provided an unequal advantage to those receiving it. Because of this, people of lower economic classes and minority backgrounds have been placed under an extreme injustice. The sociopolitical problems involved with education in pre-1968 Brazil inspired Paulo Freire to write his Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In this book, Freire reveals the issues he finds with the way he sees students being taught. The educational system he sees is structured in a way that discourages critical thinking. He describes this system through a “banking“ concept. Students are believed to have empty bank accounts in their brain and the function of the teachers is to simply deposit information into these brains. Thus, students are unable to disagree with their teachers therefore accepting conformity. As a result of this system, students are oppressed by the teachers who “do not favor promoting the community as a whole, but rather selected leaders” (Freire). This ultimately will create a society in which a small percent of the population, or the elite, controls the majority thus continuing the cycle of inequality. Many all across the globe were able to identify with Freire’s criticism of the unjust conditions that were mistreating millions of poor and even middle class people. Totalitarian governments, as described in the introduction of the book, have realized the effects that this book can bring on its people and have taken measures to minimize the risk on anti-oppression. These include banning the book and even imprisoning those caught reading it. Despite the vast majority of people who oppose the book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed still had effects elsewhere. In the first half of the 20th century, the City University of New York encompassed numerous college campuses that were predominantly filled with white students. Authors, such as a contributor in the book State of White Supremacy, Dylan Rodriquez, would attribute this to the “logic of white supremacist social dominance” (Jung). Students of minority descent were, thus, denied access to a higher education. A remarkable turning point to this condition resulted from the work of Freire. In 1969, only one year after the release of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, several Black and Puerto Rican students at City College and fought for the opening of CUNY admissions. Fortunately, this proved successful, as the almost entirely white student body had been transformed into a major