Mohanad R. Mohsen WG4a Alisha 8/14/ 2013 E1D1 Cash for good grades Motivation is the power that pushing us to do things we have to do, things that we know very well they required to achieve our goals. And only students who stay motivated about their study make success. But the secret here is find the good reasons behind this motivation, and the paying for the students for good grades seem like sending the wrong messages to make them doing well for the wrong reasons and this causes future negative effects. Responsibility doesn’t always come with rewards like people don’t get money for keep their houses clean or for eating healthy meals. If we paid for students when they get good grads may be this habit will stick with them for life.
Education: How the Nation Stays Afloat and the Students Sink American culture plays a critical role in how our educational systems were designed. American culture has created the myth that is, without a formal education, success, creativity and individuality are impossible to achieve. However, schools are not assisting the students in their pursuit of success and individuality. The educational system was produce with another mission in mind; suppress the student’s intelligence and creativity, increase funds with Corporate America by manipulating the handicap schools and assign each student a social role and aid them in developing that role only. Schools are not as helpful as we may have perceived, they discreetly create docile citizens by giving the illusion that the system is developing each student.
In Freire’s and Pratt’s writings they share similar concepts about education through contact zones and problem-posing education, practices of each concept they have directly been apart of and criticism against the banking system which are having a huge impact on the modern education system today. Freire and Pratt both oppose the banking education system due to its attempts to teach students as if they are a homogenous group and to program them to be robots of stored deposits of information given by the teacher. Freire’s problem- posing concept introduces a new student/teacher relationship that makes them more equal. Pratt’s contact zone concept is “ the space in which transculturation takes place…where two different cultures meet and inform each other, often in highly asymmetrical ways” (Pratt 524). Freire’s problem-posing concept consists of the teachers and students having a jointly responsible task of learning through dialogue and teaching each other, not one particular person teaching another.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed: The Banking Concept The banking theory is a groundbreaking notion that was introduced by Paulo Freire in his book the Pedagogy of the Oppressed. He uses this theory to describe the state of education in modern times, which involves the lack of innovation in an environment where students are force fed facts to later regurgitate them on demand. His theory brings to light serious flaws in the modern world of academia. He also suggests an alternative education system called problem-posing education, which encourages critical thinking amongst students and teachers. This essay will explore Freire’s theory to a deeper extent and show that the theory he developed is still very much relevant in the 21st century.
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.
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.
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.
For example, students expect teachers to grade fairly even though they plagiarized the work they are handing in. Changes in American culture have a bad influence on children; it affects their development and the ability to develop integrity. Steven Carter states “integrity is like the weather: everybody talks about it but nobody knows what to do with it”(181). Children know the
Mr. Brocklehurst ideas to give the student a moral and academic education are beyond human expectations. One of his ideas was about how teachers were supposed to teach the students strictly rather than sympathetically. For example, by punishing and embarrassing them in front of the whole class. (J.E chapter. 5 pg.
“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