According to Paulo Freire, "Education is suffering from narration sickness." Students are given information, and they are expected to memorize the information, this is known as the banking concept. If the students only memorize the information, are they even learning what the information truly means or are they just memorizing the information long enough to take a test? The "Banking" Concept of Education is not only ineffective but also contributes to students suffering with the inability to think for themselves and creatively. In his essay, The "Banking" Concept of Education, Paulo Freire basically states that education is simply just a teacher who lectures all class period, filling the student's memory with information, and he or she merely accepts that the information is correct.
Paulo Freire came up with a theory that education is “just an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor.” (Page 1: Pedagogy of the Oppressed) He goes on to say that the banking concept does not allow a “dialogue” between student and teacher and that the student becomes a passive person from the lack of this communication. He tries to explain to his readers that banking trains people to being passive later in life. He goes on to say that he pities teachers because they do not realize that they are “banking” today’s new generation. Those who use the banking approach, knowingly or unknowingly (for there are innumerable well-intentioned bank-clerk teachers who do not realize that they are serving to only dehumanize), fail to perceive that the deposits themselves contain contradictions about reality. (Page 3: Pedagogy of the Oppressed) Paulo Freire thinks that teachers and students are separated through a “dichotomy” and that we don’t communicate with each other.
While describing what makes up the banking concept, Freire delves deep into giving examples and comparisons of the teacher and the student relationship involved in the banking concept of education. Students of this system are described as containers and receptacles, and for good reason. Students are not viewed as equals to the instructors, but are treated as an inferior type of machine that must be put together by the teachers. Depositing information into the minds of the students has become a common practice and the popular way of teaching whatever subject the student may be in class studying at the time. This seems to be a very formal and uninvolved style.
“Narration (with the teacher as narrator) leads the students to memorize mechanically the narrated account. Worse yet, it turns them into "containers," into "receptacles" to be "filled" by the teachers.” Freire Believes that students are like empty containers that are filled with knowledge provided by the teacher thus, the students have no choice but to accept and memorize the knowledge provided by their teacher. The banking model educates students in a way that student do not get any opportunity to communicate with the teacher, but in problem posing the students have the opportunity to interact with the teacher which leaves room for arguments therefore, making
Reality is perceived as motionless, static, and not moving; students are encouraged to be shaped as a certain individual and be formed in this superficial world. The banking concept of education persuades students to accept the world as it is perceived. It separates the student and the student’s consciousness from humanity, and in turn contributes to coercion. Freire is criticizing the banking concept of education because he feels that it is morally wrong for students to turn into “containers” or “receptacles” to be “filled” by the teacher. (Freire) In other words, students have no valid correlation to their lives.
This ability to critically analyze the context of oppression and reflect on personal actions and motivations is not innate. It has to be taught. Paulo Freire believes that the oppressed have to be educated in the fight for their own liberation. This can be done by the use of dialogue as an educational tool. Freire explores in the second chapter the educational methods and strongly rejects the "banking" approach, claiming it results in the dehumanization of both the students and the teachers.
Assume responsibility is when you take responsibility for your own actions. If you are having trouble understanding what the professor is saying don't be scared to ask questions. You don't understand what you are doing in class work or home work. Ask questions because you don't want to assume anything and then you fail your work. 2.
Freire's ideas of the "banking" concept is portrayed in the use of teaching through online courses because it further enhances his argument. Freire argues that we should change the way we teach and how we are taught. In general, students come to school and are given information from their teachers. The students are given this information and are required to repeat it to their teacher in some form, whether it be a test or an assignment. Freire compares this type of system to that of a banking process.
They won’t help people who need them if these people don’t have money. This money will effects on education budget while this money should be spent on things that can help the student achievements like teachers training and modern labs facilities. Teacher training about modern teaching techniques is very important. Many researches which made on young students shows that
Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiqués and makes deposits which the student patiently: receive, memorize and repeat.” (Freire 216) Freire makes it clear in the second concept, “problem-posing” that he believes students never think critically or develop ideas. “Yet only through communication can human life hold meaning the teacher cannot think for his students, nor can he impose his thought on them” (Freire 218). Freire argues that the only real education is one that communication and understanding are pertinent. According to Freire’s labels, Rodriguez had a “banking” concept education. The idea that the teacher deposited into Rodriguez fits the majority of his experiences in the education he received.