Banking Concept of Education by Paolo Freire

Lucas McBride
RH101
Pierce
9/13/12
Are We Ready?

In his essay, “The 'Banking' Concept of Education,” Paolo Freire advocates an educational system where extensive dialogue between student and teacher drives critical thinking and conscious learning. Recognizing the need for an education that produces adaptable students who are prepared for the unpredictable world beyond the classroom, Freiere's radical theory of such problem posing education may be a right step, but perhaps a step too quick for today's educational system that is so deeply interwoven in our society. However, in its essence, his idea of praxis learning very well may be the liberation needed from the oppressive and mechanical education systems that are denying the development of creativity among its subjects and alienating them from the true perception of reality.
Freire mentions in his text that the current education, referred to as the “Banking' Concept”, in turn is, “..serving only to dehumanize,” its students with knowledge, “deposits (that) themselves contain contradictions.”(320) He argues that this education concept is steering its students away from reality and keeping them inside a, “structure of oppression.”(320) In such oppression students are not assembling their own ideas and perspectives of the world, in turn they are disciplined to see the world how teachers are making them see it. "For the more the oppressed can be led to adapt to that situation, the more easily they can be dominated" (261). In order to prepare students correctly and aid the transition into the real world, Freire implies the importance of avoiding distancing students from the aspects of real life by using the problem-posing techniques such as communication and questioning between student and teacher in order to hone old ideas and at the same time develop new and different ones as well, opposed to the current situation where in classrooms," the teacher teaches and the students are taught." (319) Implementing that, “problem-posing education involves a constant unveiling of reality,”(324) and with its teaching methods, students are obtaining the creativity to survive in today's uncertain world.
Although Freire's theory of a problem-posing education; with its wonderful ideas of discussion based classes and evaluating instead of grading, no matter how good it sounds on paper, it is very radical and would be very difficult to apply completely in even the top high schools and middle schools of today. The transition from such a basic education system to this very advanced and dependent arrangement would never work. Such transition would require higher quality and more dedicated teachers as well as dedicated students to go along with a system that would have far less requirements and expect a lot more out of students. Along with the lack of resources to maintain such an educational system, the work ethic of students must be altered completely. A whole new code of ethics and honor would have to be put in place to make sure students are not cruising through school without working or learning anything. Judging the craftiness and willingness of students today to get through school using the absolute minimum effort possible, it will be quite hard to step back and trust students to do optional homework and preparing for discussions. The idea that, “the teacher thinks, and the students are thought about,” (319) has been branded into the minds of the students to develop a habit of expecting the teacher to provide the information and simply memorize and express them in tests. That has always been their minds set, and students like the rest of the human race have a sort of an “inertia” or resilience to alternations of daily activities. Up to the age of the early twenties or maybe even later, school has been a daily activity that has remained almost consistent through those years. Therefore, switching over to a, “Liberating education,” (323) can be difficult, and maybe even risky. Very much like jumping in front of a moving train right before the track splits in to two lanes signaling the conductor to switch lanes at the last second. More often than not, switching lanes so quickly would cause a derailment. Even if the train initially was heading the wrong direction, it is now left in disarray and probably on fire. However, if the train was given more room to slowly and comfortably switch lanes, the train would have been on its way accordingly in the right direction. Education cannot be forced into a totally different concept overnight. It might take months, it might even take years to successfully complete Friere's, “revolutionary process,” (328) however, demanding such a change automatically will most definitely put off many students. Guiding the changeover while maintaining some of the some old methods but progressively cutting them out over time, the change can possibly be made having not even been noticed by students and only the results of, “overcoming authoritarianism,” (328) to show for it.
Although it will be difficult to train students to veer away from this system, it is hard to dismiss how detrimental the banking concept of education is to the development of the students who surrender to it. Freire describes students under this education as, “passively open to the reception of deposits of reality from the world outside,” (247) in which, “the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor." (260) With such roles, the students never truly become conscious to reality due to the contradicting characteristics of such deposits. Furthermore, being forced to memorize these contradictions only further back tracks students from obtaining necessary skills and experience to be a proper member of society. “The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness.” (Freire 261) Articulating that the only way to develop this critical consciousness is the engagement of argument and questioning in classrooms to take the ideas presented by the teacher, and justify them by developing a discussion.
According to Freire, it is obvious that today's education needs serious renovating due to its lack of room for originality among the students it oppresses, the only problem overlooked is the reality behind the ability for such a massive change in what can be considered a big part of a country's culture. However hard, such problem-posing education would in turn create a whole new window for imaginative thinkers to be developed and discovered to eventually be released in to the world to encounter troubles rationally and maturely.