Eng 110
Professor Fiona Lee
Paulo Freire defines Banking Concept of Education as an example where teacher
deposit and store information as a “depositor to the depositories” (Freire 244), to the
students. Student receives the content within a class work with patient, memorize and
repeat it back to the teacher. The Banking Concept of Education as Freire say “lack
creativity and transformation and even freedom to express and to communicate” (Freire
244). In the Banking concept of Education it “creates the power of oppression and
eliminates liberation” (Freire 246), which means that the students and teacher doesn’t
have the chance to communicate back and put their thoughts on what the educational
system had put out for them to follow. There’s no authentic thought in a banking concept
of education because all students does is memorize and repeat the concept instead of
facing the reality of knowing the true core value of an information and they forget the
meaning behind “conscious of their consciousness”(Freire 251). It is commodity like a
bourgeoisie that has all the power to buy labor power treated the students and the teacher
like proletariats that had been alienated from voicing out their opinion and requesting
change under an educational system.
I found that I have a class that can be related to the banking concept of education.
Where you can see my art history teacher is filling a container like the student’s brain
with historical facts. In relation to the banking concept of education, the class is Western
Art History class endures about three hours long. Every Thursday, the professor has a
power point presentation in her lecture and she basically just continued with lecture for
the whole three hours and she barely ask the students what they think of the concepts
from the past. Although she did show us the examples and pictures of the artifacts from
the past, we the students still have a hard time digesting a whole lot of information from
the professor’s lectures. As I looked around the lecture hall when two hours had passed, I
saw most people put their head down and they were getting tired of the class. As a matter
of fact on the syllabus, the professor wanted the students to read about twenty pages
without discussion of any question that is relevant to the pages. Which I am not sure what
the professor think the students can get out from this art history class such as the purposes
and reasons behind how art history information can eventually bring to us in the future.
After I’ve read Freire’s Banking Concept of Education I sort of figured out the
situation. If I can ever offer a solution to this concept, I would tell the art history
professor that she doesn’t necessarily need to follow the educational system of the
banking concept of education by showing her power point presentation and follow what
the textbook curriculum bourgeoisie expect her to do. She can put her twist on what she
think the student can obtain from her teaching instead of following the same teaching
curriculum that is offered by the Board of Education. In a problem posing education
environment, students can think critically and more outside of the box in an authentic
way. The art history professor can point out some questions that challenge the students to
think critically for example by allowing the students to question the professor’s lecture,
So that both students and teachers can grow on their knowledge of the subject, “Freire
created a classroom where teacher and students have equal power and equal dignity so
that the teachers can help the students to know what they know” (Freire 243). Interaction
between the students and teacher is very important to Freire because in students-teacher
communication, both sides can learn knowledge that they’ve never encounter before from
one another. By suggesting a critical way of thinking between the teacher and the
students so that they can both unite to change the way the totalitarian power and find a
solution to an educational system that will eventually lead to liberal education. Thus, as
Freire say, there is always room for transformation and revolution which Freire suggested
that “leaders need not take full power before they can employ the method” (Freire 254).
The art history professor should keep in mind that she doesn’t necessarily need to
“cognize the lecture as her private property, but as the object that can reflect on her and
the students” (Freire 250). So she would not only “justify her own existences” (Freire
253). However, she can incorporate with the student’s opinions and existence of inquiry
as well. The art history teacher can think of her own teaching method that can both
incorporate the banking concept with the problem posing education together to balance
an educational experience. Historical facts can be banking concept of education because
it is about truth facts and in a problem posing education, the teacher can ask if the
students agree with the event that happened in the past or not, so the students have their
right to suggest their opinion more democratically.
In addition to a new method of learning besides the banking concept of education,
recently I’ve learned from an Intro to Anthropology class that offers a concept that
directly relate to the solution to the oppressive educational system. The professor conveys
a “culture concept” that can be related to Freire’s thought about the oppressor by saying
that culture concept is “Hearth” where you can see a fireplace that symbolizes people
interacting together. So this part of the culture concept relates to Freire suggestion about
student-teachers communication to interact together that allows them to change how an
oppressor (educational system) functions. The way that people used culture concept is by
intimate knowledge, not empiricism. Freire would agree with this concept that in an
educational system there should be no measurement of restriction it is through knowledge
that the teacher-students can interact to make an educational experience sustainable. In
anthropology class the professor convey that it is important for an anthropologist to give
agency to people and through anthropologists study we can see that they give the people
that they were studying, a voice and power to control their actions. Thus, I can correlate
the significance of anthropologist study with the solution to an educational system. An
educational system should provide students and teacher with the liberty to voice on their
own opinion and perform their own way of learning and educating. Therefore, in my
anthropology class it is an example of a new method of learning which allows me to have
the liberty to connect the knowledge that I’ve learned from the anthropology class with
the topic of this essay assignment.
In conclusion, there is always room for revision in the banking concept of
education. The teacher who is afraid of interacting with the students should think of both
the teacher and the student’s existence that will challenge both the teacher and the
student’s learning environment. So in the end, the teacher can overcome the
“authoritarianism and an alienating intellectual perception of the reality and eliminates
the oppressor which is the educational system from preventing the liberty of expressing
what the students or even the teacher think of creating their own innovative concept of
education (Freire 254). Freire prove a point that “ Hence, it affirms women and men as
beings who transcend themselves who move forward and look ahead wisely build the
future” (Freire 253). Thus, those students and teacher can successfully create their own
thought and change the educational system from dictating over themselves. They can also
change the oppressor’s idea about how an educational system is wrong and progress
through trial and error to make an educational experience more valuable and
revolutionary way to eliminate the oppressors from dictating over the liberal form of
interaction within an educational setting.
Work Cited
Freire, Paulo. “Banking Concept of Education,” Ways of Reading. Ed. David
Bartholomae, Anthony Petrosky. Boston. Bedford/ St. Martins, 2008, 242-254. Print.