What do students obtain through education? Freire in his essay ‘The Banking Concept of Education’ argues that students gain useless and meaningless knowledge through education, and I agree with Freire because education has become an act of depositing meaningless information into students. Freire believes the current educational system is flawed due to the “Banking Concept”, which Freire describes as, “an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor”(Freire 72). Freire implies that teachers are only telling students what to know rather than conversting with them, which explains why Freire insists that “education is suffering from narration
This “flawed” concept in education today is the oppressive “depositing” of information (banking education) by teachers to students. “Banking education (for obvious reasons) attempts, by mythicizing reality, to conceal certain facts which explain the way people exist in the world…” (p.224) The “banking concept” is an act that hinders the intellectual growth of students by turning them into “receptors” and “collectors” of information that have no true connection to their lives. The “banking concept” is essentially turning humans into objects. “Banking education inhibits creativity and domesticates (although it cannot completely destroy) the intentionality of consciousness by isolating consciousness from the world, thereby denying people their ontological and historical vocation of becoming more fully human.” (p.224) This type of education
Freire describes that “The banking concept of education, which serves the interests of oppression, is also necrophilic. Based on a mechanistic, static, naturalistic, spatialized view of consciousness, it transforms students into receiving objects. It attempts to control thinking and action, leads women and men to adjust to the world, and inhibits their creative power” (261). According to Freire, the banking concept causes oppression. Under it, students are nothing more than objects that receive knowledge. Therefore, it is necrophilic, treating the students as if they were dead and could not think. I think that the banking concept of education restricts students and what they are capable of. Rather than actively involving the students, the students are fed information from the teachers. The goal of education is for the students to actually learn, and the only way that can be accomplished is through
There is one thing that is universally sought after in this world, regardless of race, ethnicity, age, location, and upbringing. There is one thing that every single human being hungrily craves. There is one thing that can make the potential difference between a life of abject poverty or comfortable prosperity: knowledge. The human mind’s thirst for knowledge can never be fully quenched, and it is always left wanting more; although, this isn’t necessarily a detrimental thing. Many different and unique styles of education have emerged as an attempt to satisfy the universal desire of knowledge, but it is often debated which style of education is the most effective. There is a very wide range of teaching styles on the spectrum of education,
Yet even with these realizations that delve into the deeper meaning of education, modern education is still calling for simple measurable outcomes and continues to be geared towards specific employment ideas. This model of education is blatantly inadequate though. Many students today will end up holding jobs not yet invented in fields not yet discovered, so the teaching of answers to today’s questions is utterly useless. Albert Einstein once said, “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” and this statement reigns true throughout time. To continue academic success, the education system needs to impart a mastery of one’s own mind that allows students to not only answer current questions but also to pose questions that will shape the future world.
In today’s society, education has shifted the way in how one thinks, making a basis were they acquire everyone in a classroom to grasp the knowledge being presented to them at the same pace. Those that are unsuccessful to comprehend in the way that was instructed to them are viewed upon as the most needed and deficient. Having a structured way in how one should apprehend certain information, sets barriers in the process of thinking. It prevents the mind to think of other solutions, and to stick to the certain idea.
On the other hand, Paulo Friere argues about the authority educators exerts over the students, how educators believe they have more power and knowledge than their students. “His task is to "fill" the students with the contents of his narration” (Frierre 1, paragraph 2). We memorize other people’s information and we think we are doing a great job, but what would happen if one of us unfolds and break the boundaries between authority and communication. What will be the consequences for us; are we going to fail the class for thinking outside of the box. We are not empty receptacles to be filled with recited words; we have the right to express our point of view and listen to our way of thinking. When are going to get the benefit of the doubt, what educational system do we have to follow, we are lost between consumerism and the lack of
But when a child is reared in a nurturing and loving environment they can blossom into a free thinking questioning intelligent human being. Another article that uses these ideas to explore the problems with rigid top-down cultures is Paulo Freire’s “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education”. In this article, Paulo Freire describes two main concepts relating to how the education system functions, one which is the current problem, and one that is his proposed solution. The problematic system is called the banking concept of education. Freire explains, “In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing.” With this he is explaining how within the banking system teachers are the ones with all the knowledge and are of a higher power than the students, so the teachers give everything to the students and the students give nothing to the teacher. This is because the students are described as simply being responsible to absorb what the teacher has to teach them. This is due to the fact that it is believed that it is not possible for them to comprehend anything the teacher does not already understand because that would be too
Rather than creating a world filled with the most creative and independent thinkers, the crippling educational system that has been implemented by society over the years focuses on producing ‘mindless consumers and employees’. According to an article written by John Taylor Gatto, Against School, the flaws in a modern ‘compulsory’ school system that have dramatic effects on the student body and faculty. The passing blame between teacher and student are said to be results of the decreased salaries and mindless lesson plans leading to busywork for hours. The author states that as a society “ We suppress our genius only because we haven’t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women.” (Gatto,5) The devastating decline in the quality of our educational system has encouraged this upcoming generation to not think at all for themselves or the effects their actions may have on others.
Students are only being programmed to know their major and nothing else as if they are robots with no mind for their own to improve on nor think freely. In the essay The Role of the Teacher, written by Irving Layton, he states, “A feeling has grown that schools and universities are not achieving that which they were intended to: namely, the enrichment of the individual's life by giving him the tools of self-improvement and the cultivated mind to use them” (339). Layton explains that our current educational system is not sufficient enough in teaching this generation of how to live a good life. The current education system does not enrich the minds of the students which causes a lack in creativity. Living a good life entails the education received from our schools of course, but as well, it is a life in which the society is developing on self-improvement and enrichment of
Teachers restrict students from learning subjects that the teacher may not feel is trustworthy to them. Freire states, “The teacher presents himself to his students as their necessary opposite; by considering their ignorance absolute, he justifies his own existence” (217). In this statement, Paulo Freire shapes that in the ‘banking’ concept of education students are viewed as ignorant and incapable of critical thought; therefore, teachers believe it is their responsibility to impose their ideals upon students to help them become capable people. These people will be intelligent enough to complete the jobs placed before them but will not be able to think critically enough to stop any oppression the educational system will one day place on their
Education has been a topic of discussion in society for a long as civilization has been around. The way our children are taught has been an everlasting argument filled with people who believe their way is the correct way. Everybody seems to have an opinion about how schools should be run and how things should be taught. Three authors; Paulo Friere, Richard Rodriquez, and Mary Louise Pratt all wrote pieces that give their opinion of the correct way to run the way our children are taught. Paulo Freire, which is the author of “The banking concept of Education” believes that way students are being taught is totally wrong. Freire describes the banking education one where students are just waiting to be told information by the teacher and they will
Freire speaks of how the banking concept has created a “false perception of reality.” (Freire 226) The nature of this method of education is to revoke any sort of independent thought from the student, allowing only the teacher to provide the lessons and conversational layout for a class. The method creates this false perception of reality for the students. Without additional perspectives, the students are only able to see the world though their teacher’s beliefs. This issue is very problematic due to the importance education plays developmentally on human beings. Much of what we learn throughout our lives sticks with us and becomes part of who we are. The problem with these false perceptions is they attempt to destroy the very essence of what makes humanity extraordinary; our ability to reason. Freire writes:
Although we might all get the equal education there is still times in which education might seem unfair or not high quality. Since we do have the possibility to go to school all we need is for the teachers to give us their time and effort for us to become great people in the future. In Kirp’s article “The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools” it says we should be giving the students' “teachable moments”. This is a great option of helping the children out. They will be able to learn and make connections to their education materials if they are taught the right ways. It also says a way for students to succeed “students must become thinkers, not just test-takers” I feel like this is a very powerful saying. Kirp have a good point students should become
Education is a very important aspect of the lives of all people all over the world. What we learn, not just in the classroom, shapes who we are. We take our education everywhere we go. We use it when talking to our buddies about sports or music, we use it while solving a math problem, we use our education while debating with our family whether or not we should watch TV or go to the movies. Our education is the foundation of who we are, since every decision we make and every thought we think is dependent on what we know. Imagine how different the world would be if everyone craved learning to such a degree that at lunch tables all over the world the topic of conversation isn't who likes who, or how drunk