English class

29 June, What are Freire’s primary criticisms about education? Freire’s primary criticisms about education are that in a conventional educational setup, children serve as containers that are filled by the teacher. The narrative style of pedagogy saps the students’ interest or curiosity for knowledge. Such a culture makes the students bland in their approach towards analysis of knowledge they are filled with. Students cram the information without realizing the meaning or significance of what they know. In a traditional educational setup, the decision making power solely rests with the teacher. When the students are not allowed their adequate share of decision making, they become more of objects rather than conscious human beings with analytic and evaluative senses. (Freire) has identified two basic types of educational concepts, namely the banking education and the problem-posing education, and has discussed the traits of both. The banking education is the typical pedagogical approach in which the teachers are in charge and the students are enslaved. In the exams, children’s memory is checked rather than their analytical skills. The problem-posing concept is on the other end of the scale. In the problem-posing educational concept, the teacher is always cognitive and never narrative. The teacher adopts a reflective approach and inculcates his own reflections in those of the students. In this system of education, neither the teacher nor the students standardize the concepts. To them, reality keeps transforming and so do the concepts. What is the ” banking system” of education? This is a system of education in which the teacher and students do not mutually exert mentally to realize the truth, but the assumed truth is fed into the students by the teacher. The teacher is always right! The teacher prepares the lesson beforehand and makes the presentation in the class. The students take notes of the narration of the teacher and memorize the information. It is the uninterrupted storage of information that coins the term “ banking”. The subject under discussion is the teacher’s property, thus the students can not practice any cognition. The so-called preservation of knowledge does not have anything to do with true knowledge or culture. How does this opinion about education relate to you personally? Connect it to something you’ve experienced in education (in public school or whenever). With my personal experience, I can say that what Freire has said about the traditional educational systems is right, though I believe the systems are there for a reason. There is no doubt in the fact that the problem-posing educational concept is more evaluative and allows both the teachers and the students to work and mentally exert mutually to reach a conclusion about a subject, but this is achieved with a compromise upon the time. Instigation of students’ cognition and thoughts requires a lot of discussion which takes a lot of time to be conducted. This may not always be possible for a teacher particularly when a certain volume of curriculum has to be covered before the end of the term. I remember that in school, at times, I would become too inquisitive and demand answers from the teacher before letting him move forward. But this did not let the teacher finish the lecture in the duration assigned. This is where the banking system works. It saves time and fills more knowledge into the students which they may, if desire so, analyze and cognize in their free time. Works Cited: Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum Books, 1993. Print.