The Banking Concept of Education and The Achievement of Desire - Essay Example

The Banking Concept of Education and the Achievement of Desire (24.10.11) In his essay d The Banking Concept of Education, Paulo Freire has compared two distinct aspects of education by citing the concepts of banking and problem posing. In terms of the banking concept, students are assumed by teachers to be passive and they take complete control in determining the teaching strategy while literally force feeding knowledge on students. In this case, the world is perceived as being stationery and students are expected and encouraged to fit themselves into the prevailing circumstances of the world around them. Consequently, through the banking concept, students are forced to accept the world as it is because of which there is a diversion between the student and his or her consciousness relative to the actual world. It is in this context that critics have referred to the concept as contributing towards students’ repression. In the problem solving approach, teachers and students continue with dialogues in teaching each other. In this case, the world is viewed as being in the process of evolving and becoming, and students are considered an integral part of this process. Thus, students remain active, are made powerful to face up with the world and to assert their opinions, thereby contributing to a changing world. Therefore, the problem solving approach leads to liberating the students and empowering them to revolt against repressive economic and social practices. The problem posing approach of education permits people to positively expand their human nature because it is dependant upon communication (dialogue), encourages enquiries, identifies the relationship amongst people and the world and leads to positive change. Freire holds that teachers are in the know of knowledge relative to writing and reading while students have the knowledge of the realities of their culture. Freire’s approach in regard to the banking concept terms the teacher’s role as solely being limited to transmitting knowledge to students, or in other words, depositing knowledge into students’ brains just as money is deposited in a bank. Freire has discussed the political implications between teachers and students and holds that some forms of schooling permit students to have control over their lives but most students only submit to domination by teachers. However, many believe that Freirean education is a reciprocal procedure in which reflection is made on the evolving knowledge in regard to the students’ changing culture. Education is an issue that can be delved into through several ways. The topic of education has been examined by Paulo Freire in his essay, The Banking Concept of Education and also by Richard Rodriguez in his work titled, The Achievement of Desire. It is interesting to analyze the ways in which Freire might analyze Rodriguezs experiences as a student and his journey in life till the time he wrote The Achievement of Desire. Having read both essays it is apparent that assumptions can be made about the diverse methods of education that Rodriguez went through and the kind of relationship he had with his teachers. It is also apparent that different styles of education impacted Rodriguez’s relationship with his family and many other aspects of his life. It is evident from Freire’s classification that Rodriguez underwent educational experiences relative to the banking concept. Rodriguez has clearly indicated that as a child, he strongly believed that books would make him a well educated person. He never queried about what his teachers told him or about what he read in his books. It is also known did not develop his own critical thinking abilities or his own distinct ideas, which is evident when he confesses that he was a great mimic, collected thoughts, never thought deeply and very rarely expressed his own opinion in class (Rodriguez, p.582). After Rodriguez maintains that he is an elite student he validates his actions in having taken initiatives in his early education. It is also known that Rodriguez used Hoggart’s works to explain his own experiences of learning. Having read his book, Rodriguez realizes he has recognized himself and he justifies why it was necessary to treat home and school differently in terms of priority. Rodriguez feels that it was important for him to separate school from home because they are two different entities. Freire’s classification of the banking concept is clearly highlighted here in Rodriguez’s life because he had to leave his family and culture to attain the elite scholarly status. This implied that he left his home so that knowledge could be fed into him in order to achieve the sought after status of being knowledgeable. Rodriguez had an intense desire to become exceptionally literate in following the footsteps of his mentor Hoggart. In defining himself, Rodriguez refers to Hoggart’s works and words to make his readers understand his own experiences. As a student, Rodriguez matched up with Freire’s banking concept at the home as well as in class. The environment at both places presents students with hurdles that they must surpass. Rodriguez has described in detail how he was distracted in his studies at home, by detailing the actions of his family members, whereby he was constantly disturbed in being unable to grasp what he was attempting to understand from his books. This aspect in Rodriguez’s life clearly indicates that he was more prone and receptive to learning in the classroom where knowledge was virtually loaded into his brain. He eventually decided to stop making attempts to learn at home and instead became dependent upon the classroom environment and tried his best to emulate the styles and accent of his teachers. Rodriguez had conviction in his teachers and trusted all their directives, more than his own elders in the family. This is evident when he said about his parents that they were not like his teachers. Rodriguez was much impressed and inspired by the professor who stated that books were responsible for making him successful in life. This implies that Rodriguez was substantially dependent upon books instead of conducting is own research and studies on different aspects of life and knowledge. Rodriguez behaved like a robot while reading books because he never attempted to elucidate or understand the readings but reasoned with himself that he was reading for the sole objective of being able to say that he had read a particular book. Rodriguez has confessed that he hardly understood most of the books that he read. Just as one has to keep referring to something that is in a data bank, he too had to keep looking back at book jackets to remain in touch with what subject and topic he was reading. He would feel relieved by the time he was able to read the last word of a book in being able to justify that he had completed reading the book. Rodriguez was quite frustrated with his books and did not value or appreciate the materials that he read. He was attuned in thinking that it was more important to read books relative to deep research instead of children’s books. He chose to read books, not for entertainment or because of being interested in them but for being able to have the knowledge in his mind about what he read. This was exactly what Freire referred to as the banking concept of education whereby the extent of action permitted for students was limited only to “receiving, filling and storing the deposits” (Freire, 351). Rodriguez would read books to satisfy his teachers in order to have the ability to emulate them but in this process he failed to realize that he was increasingly becoming more like an automated machine. In the context of Freire’s concepts, Rodriguez was much oppressed and dominated by his teachers and books and did not have a strong voice in expressing his opinion. He was not only meeting all the conditions of Freire’s banking concept of education but was an entity that held together ideas and thoughts of formal teachers and indistinct authors. He did not have his own belief systems and opinions and his mind was full of knowledge derived from others’ works. He lacked the ability to analyze, examine and have a specific point of view on issues of significance. These were the specific shortcomings pointed out by critics in the concepts outlined by Freire. If Freire was to review Rodriguez’s education he would certainly categorize him as a typical example of a banking system student in view of his assertion that education eventually turns out to be an action of depositing whereby “students are the depositories” (Freire, p.345). Rodriguez matched up with the banking concept in other ways also, which is evident when Rodriguez expresses that the “scholarship student is not a good student and that he is a great mimic, a collector of thoughts and is not a thinker” (Freire, p.632). This aspect not only illustrates Rodriguez’s qualities but also describes the idea of the banking concept. Rodriguez had a hierarchical relationship with his teachers, which is obviously a result of his education relative to the banking concept. His original teachers were his nuns, form masters and the books that he carried back home from his school. All his knowledge about facts and figures was obtained from these books. In this context, Rodriguez recalled that there was a time when one of his nuns assisted him in corrective reading and she told him that there was a definite link between writer and reader and communication. This information made a deep impact on Rodriguez’s mind and played an important role in the formation of his initial relationships with books that he used in establishing a kind of communication. The concepts and ideas that he studied in his books eventually became the ideas and concepts that he spoke about. Works Cited Bartholomae, David., and Anthony Petrosky. Ways of Reading, Ninth Edition, Bedford, 2010. Read More