The Banking Concept of Education

784 Words4 Pages
What does Paulo Freire consider are the major flaws of a banking concept of education? Why? What does he propose instead of a banking concept of education? Why? Throughout the years there have been many arguments on how to educate and in whether changing the paradigms of education, on how to educate and what’s the best strategic concept to be used in mainly public schools, considering the Latin American context. Paulo Freire, a leading and influential figure inside the “critical pedagogy” to guide students into helping them develop their critical thinking and consciousness of freedom. He noticed and studied a dichotomy between the teacher and the student, shown in the modern education in Latin America realizing there is a “banking concept” being presented. He refers to this “banking concept of education” to be a fractional action of communication from the teacher to the student, by delivering information to the student, having it stored and not exactly storing it and recognizing the information, by simply absorbing and accepting that all information received is the only thing they are meant to digest. Freire believes that this concept of education is suited for oppressors, to have the overwhelming control in aiming the student to adapt to this doctrine. He opposes to this educational system and one can understand it diminishes the divergent thinking of the student. This creative, authentic thinking, that seeks to talk and communicate inside the reality being faced, is oppressed by the teachers when using only narrative, predictable, motionless and static teaching and making the students rely only on what’s being taught and deposited into their minds instead of making it interactive and discussions based class. The student loses the ability on feeding and/or expanding their critical thinking in the conscious mind; this term is called the critical
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