This piece is definitely one of those pieces one has to re-read to completely understand it. I know I did and after read it again; I picked up on some key points Freire makes about the "banking concept of education" that I didn't see when I read it for the first time. Freire mentions that with the "banking" method, us as students, are in possession of a consciousness, but we are not conscious as humans because we are not digesting what we are "storing" in our brains. Students are only considered successful academically when they can regurgitate all of the facts they've shoved in their brain, without ever applying the facts they've received to the real world. But, according to Freire, the students aren't at fault for this "banking" of information; the blame is placed upon the teachers. The supposed reason why teachers make their students memorize material is so they can feel superior to their students. Education means power and by suppressing their students by withholding educational information, teachers are in fact superior. Honestly, I think both the student and the teacher are at fault for this "banking" of information. If a student just chooses to memorize facts for their exam instead of taking time to actually learn how things work and how they can be applied to the real world; that's the student's problem, not the teachers. If this student only memorized everything from his or her class and didn't understand its overall meaning and they still passed the class, then good for them, it's their loss that they won't be able to apply what they learned later on. On the other hand, if a teacher just shoves a bunch of information into his or her student’s brains without elaborating or going into detail, then why the heck are they even teaching?? Teachers should interact with their students to receive feedback and pick at their brains to see what they know and vice versa… I didn’t come to the University of Florida for some big time professor with a PhD to make me memorize a crap load of facts just so I would pass the class and they would look good to their advisors because everyone did so well in their class. Actually teach and interact with us as your students so we can apply these facts to the real world and possibly use what we learned to help us excel in upper division classes… The bottom line is.. Teachers who are all about the “banking” method, get off you’re a$$ and actually teach your students something…
I think that you are right that students and teachers are somewhat to blame, but that blame I think starts less with the "teachers" and more with the institution. Remember, Freire does not argue that all teachers are consciously trying to oppress their students--there are "banking" teachers that don't know that's what they are doing because they have not reflected on their teaching practices (or the teaching practices of their disciplines!). Thus, it comes back to a question not of the teacher's agency, but rather a question of accountability.
ReplyDeleteExample: Do I do my job if I get you to correct your grammar? Or do I do my job better if I make sure that I have shown that writing and thinking are inevitably intertwined--in other words, making you critically think about your own assumptions?
For the university (and for the job market), they are interested in making sure you can adapt to any situation in the business world AND making sure that you have a high GPA (To make them look good).
For me (and for Freire) there is something about education that can also be a force of resistance. What if education, rather than defining standardized criteria of accountability was about the very idea of accountability itself? Or other questions of value.
Bottom line: to blame the teachers is risky, particularly high school. In Florida, the entire educational institution is oriented toward passing standardized tests. Is education about possessing a body of common knowledge?