Jessica Ferguson
Professor Christine Geyer
English 103 DLJ: First Year Writing Seminar II: Academic Research and Writing
January 23, 2011
Paulo Freire is conveying the message that the way that most teachers are teaching students only allows for the students to learn what their teachers teach them. Teachers want their students to sit in their chairs and memorize what they are told and do not question any of it because the teachers are the smart one and the students are the dumb ones.
Freire wants his readers to know that most teachers are using the banking concept to educations. The banking concept to educations is described as, “Education thus becomes an act of depositing in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor” (Freire, p. 1). In other words, teachers just want students to sit, listen, memorize and regurgitate the material given to them. The students should not question or engage the teacher in anyway and the teacher’s responsibility is to be void of any new ideas, excitement and communication. The banking concept to teaching also implies that teachers believe that students know nothing and the teachers have all the knowledge, never believing that students would have any useful knowledge to contribute.
Friere lists the practices of the banking concept that need to be changed by the educational system. He lists that:
a. the teacher teaches and the students are taught;
b. the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing;
c. the teacher thinks and the students are thought about
d. the teacher talks and the students listen—meekly;
e. the teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined
f. the teacher chooses and enforces his choice, and the students comply;
g. the teacher acts and the students have the illusion of acting through the actions of the teacher;
h. the teacher chooses the program content and the students (we were not consulted) adapt to it;
i. the teacher is the subject of the learning...