The Banking Concept Of Education

Part 1: After reading about the “Banking Concept of Education,” as described by Paulo Freire, I have come to the conclusion that if you really want to go knee deep into a topic, you cannot have the information “deposited” into you by your teacher. Freire talked an excessive amount about questioning, critical thinking and consideration of information when talking about forms of learning that do not include the banking concept. This did make sense because when taking in facts that you know you are just going to memorize for a test you don’t question, you just absorb the information like a sponge (and not in a good way). As a student, there are times where I bank on the Banking Concept in order to pass a class. This is because the information
The teachers no longer merely the-one-who-teaches, but one who is himself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teach. They become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow.” (Bartholomae 324) I found this quote to be shocking while also quite obvious. When teachers say “there are no bad questions” or “it is good to make mistakes” I believe they are doing this to learn how they can teach the information so students can learn best and begin to improve. With this dialogue, as Freire said, the student is growing because they are learning from their mistakes and the teacher is learning because they are learning from the mistakes of their students. This produces growth for both the student and the teacher because they both have information that they did not have in the past. I think I found this quote to be shocking because I have never thought about dialogue between a student and a teacher in that
Science has been my least favorite subject since I began school, so to pass my science classes I rely heavily on the banking method. My geography lecture is no different and I know by this time next year the information I memorized about geography will be gone from my memory. This is not necessarily a good thing because I am wasting my time in the class by just memorizing the information. However, this is not going to effect me in the long run because I will not be using physical geography in the future.
-Physical Geography Laboratory: In this lab we have a workbook and each week we complete a lab that always involves a globe. In this lab I do not find myself learning new information because the labs are very self explanatory and usually simple. Thus, the only method I use is working quickly so I can leave early. After reading this I do understand that this sounds horrible, but measuring latitude and longitude is something that I will not be doing in the future. Like the geography lecture, I will not be using this information in the future so it is okay that I am not absorbing it