The Advantage of Social Class in Education
Lower class students have been oppressed by a social and educational system that perpetuates poverty in working class families, while more privileged students are given unfair advantage, and opportunities to become leaders in society, just because they were born to families of higher economic means. While education is thought of as something that is supposed to provide students with the skills to shape a better future, sometimes it serves as a tool to adapt them to their role in society. In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Brazilian teacher and educational reformer, Paulo Freire defines two concepts of education: the banking system, in which students are seen as containers into which knowledge is deposited, and the problem-posing system, in which students and teachers participate in a dialogue in order to create knowledge together. Friere describes the banking system as such, “In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed on those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those they consider know nothing. Projecting an absolute ignorance onto others, a characteristic of the ideology of oppression, negates education and knowledge as processes of inquiry” (Friere 210). This is in comparison to the problem-posing system which “regards dialogue as indispensable to the act of cognition which unveils reality” and “makes [students] critical thinkers” (219). Nearly a decade after Friere’s publication, concerned about the
Paulo Freire is an author who poses questions and arguments that challenge everything that his readers think and know. “The Banking Concept of Education” from Pedagogy of the Oppressed poses the question about the education system and how teachers are narrators and students are recorders. In his essay he discusses how the students – who he refers to as containers – receive their information from teachers. However, the teachers never communicate with their subordinates. The idea of “banking” suggests that students are only receiving, memorizing and receiving facts from the “depositor” which made the students “depositories.” The main ideas drawn from this article are related to education, knowledge and communication.
The social class in America is everywhere but it is often quite hard to recognize only because it is against the American principle for the social class system to exist. Whether we know it or not, we tend to participate in the class system.. By doing so, this leads us to separate ourselves based on our social class system, including class discrimination and social mobility
Freire begins Chapter 2 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed by stating his interpretation of the educational system between teacher and student, focusing primarily on the “banking” system, which is exceptionally biased due to oppressive teachers who direct their own misguided inquiries upon their oppressed students. Freire continues on by maintaining “knowledge is a gift bestowed by those
Individuals within a society are grouped into certain rankings that is based on their wealth, income, race and education known as the social stratification. Sociologist use this to determine the social standings of individuals within a society. Social stratification can also appear in much smaller groups. These groups such as the work place, schools, and businesses can “take the form of a distribution of power and authority down the ranks”. (Cole, 2017) The Caste system is also another form of stratification that one does not get a choice in. They are born into it and regardless of their talents will hold positions that are given to them their whole life. Social mobility is the ability for individuals to move about their social standings.
In Paulo Freire’s “Banking Concept of Education”, he explains his view of the educational system, and the faults within it. Freire describes the educational system as being “banking education”, which he explains to be the wrong method, and proposes a new method of “problem-posing” education which he believes to be more effective and just.
Social class is a “tag” to define your status in a community. One of the main requirements you must have to be in the Upper class, is to have wealth and power. That is basically it, and obviously the absence of those characteristics could mean you are in a Middle or even in the Lower class. Sports are an activity that people do for pleasure that requires physical activity and sometimes has rules for the players to follow in order to play the game. It is most commonly played outdoors. It can improve your cardio, health, and physical condition. For example, it can prevent things like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer or even mental illnesses like depression.
Social class has been always been in our society since its establishment. Back then, white,
Philosopher and educator Paulo Freire once said, “Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” In Freire’s work of “the Banking Concept of Concept”, he describes how the education system is failing to help student find success in the real world as well as it provides a framework for the “teachers” to oppress the “students” through the distribution of power.
Social class is a division of a society based on social and economic status which can include levels of wealth, success, power of authority, and influence. Status is can be defined or grouped having common economic, cultural, or political interests.
In the excerpt from “The Banking Concept of Education” the author, Paulo Freire explains the critical flaw in the current education system. He continues by offering his believed solution to this problem. The two concepts Freire discusses in this excerpt are the “banking concept” of education and the “problem-posing method” of education. The “banking concept” is talked about rather negatively, whereas the “problem-posing method” is talked about highly. Freire believes in the “problem-posing method” and that students should have free-will to a certain extent in the classroom with less authoritative power from the teacher during discussions.
All of a sudden, I found myself thinking sociologically when I started wondering about how get payed differently. As a society we have set up many barriers around people that makes them feel that they have very little that they can do. We have divided society into social classes that arranged from the upper class to the middle class then lower class. These classes that are set make some people feel like they are at a disadvantage when it comes to many things. After having a long thought about this I think that removing the social classes will be very beneficial to many people. Some the rich people will say that they like how it is now because they are getting lots of benefits from the social classes and that it’s not their fault they have more than others.
In the essay, “The Banking Concept of Education”, Paulo Freire compares two teaching concepts used in education, which are the “banking concept” and “problem-posing”. In the “banking concept”, the educator assumes that the students are passive, so they take full control and instill students with information without explaining it to them or receive their input. Freire believes that problem-posing education allows people to develop their human natures fully because it depends on interactions between the student and educator, encouraging them to study and learn from one another. He criticizes the banking method throughout the essay, praising only the
In “The Banking Concept of Education”, written by Paulo Freire, the author analyzes the modern day education system by comparing students to “containers” or waste receptacles that are meant to be “filled” by the teacher, or the depositor. The idea that teachers are meant to teach and students are only to listen is the main problem is today’s society. The concept is that a teacher is deemed more reputable “the more she fills the receptacles” while students are better the more they “permit themselves to be filled” (Freire 1). In turn, the “banking” concept of education is born suggesting that education becomes only an act of depositing instead of communication between both students and teachers. When students are denied their creative freedom,
On October 23th 1995 at a still undisclosed location, a sniper shot my father. He had been in the marine of 7 years and a decorated officer and that is everything I’ve been told about him to this day. My mom doesn’t mention him and I know none of his relative. Growing up without a parent has a drastic effect on any child’s life. The few people I’ve talked to about this often ask why I have never asked my mother about him and that is hugely due to the circumstances of his death and in some ways social class. Military kids aren’t supposed to cry over loved ones, but honor their memory and respect their service. We are encouraged to stand strong and often told when younger to “make them proud.”
In “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education,” from the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Revised Edition, Paulo Freire discusses two different types of education: “banking” and problem-posing. The banking concept of education is when teachers “make deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat” (318), and ‘problem posing’ is when the teachers and students are equal. Instead of being treated as human beings that have their own thoughts and ideas, students are treated as containers that are simply filled by a powerful being, a teacher. In school, teachers are dominants that provide knowledge to the students, the subordinates; the knowledge that students learn are limited to what they’re taught by teachers. Similarly, in Kurt Wimmer’s ‘Equilibrium’, Librians are treated as reservoirs for knowledge.