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Paulo Freire believed in his theory, known as "The "Banking" Concept of Education. His theory is written to show how students and teachers behave in a formal educational system. Freire feels students and teachers are cast into different roles that are followed throughout students' education. The roles vary throughout the article; the teacher is cast as a narrator, a lender and owner of knowledge, all knowing and powerful, and an oppressor. Students are also placed in different roles; they are portrayed as passive, uncaring, uncurious, oppressed "containers" without the ability to think on their own and form their own opinions. Many people would blame society because students and teachers are cast into these roles, which may be seen as unfair. People can blame society as much as they would like; however, when push comes to shove anyone who isn't working toward changing the system is a part of the problem of the system. People play an important part in casting teachers and students into the roles they follow. Students and teachers are also responsible for the roles they are cast into because they cast themselves into these roles at times, as well. An example of how such roles are issued and followed is portrayed very well in a class preparing the students for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) with a teacher who will be called Ms. Ery.
In this classroom setting, the students were learning the necessary mathematical skills to be successful on the SAT. While Ms. Ery had the ability to teach her students these skills well, she was the authority figure, and she had to stay that way at all costs. Freire would say that "…the teacher confuses the authority of knowledge with his or her own professional authority…." This was certainly true in this case. Only certain methods of solving the problems were allowed to be used by the students. They weren't allowed to use the comfortable mathematical formulas they knew how to manipulate expertly. Instead, they had to use shortcuts whether they felt comfortable using them or not. One student decided to use the old comfortable methods anyway because she felt comfortable with it and was scolded for doing so. Ms. Ery made it her job to point out that it was not the way she taught it; therefore, it could not be used as a method in her classroom. This also shows that Freire was correct when he said "…the teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined…." Although the student got the correct answer, it was believed by the teacher to be undermining her authority; therefore, she disciplined the student accordingly. Students and their parents have placed the teacher in this role of authority. Parents and students alike feel comfortable knowing the teacher knows all the answers and has all the knowledge. Questioning this knowledge or going against what the teacher has said alters the role of the authority figure given to the teacher by society; it takes away some of the control the teacher has over her students and makes the teacher feel less adequate due to a lower being questioning her authority. It can also make a teacher feel threatened; if the student gains too much knowledge, her job may be in jeopardy because a student knows just as much as she does and sometimes more than she does. This would make her less of an authority figure because the one she is educating would know more than she does on a certain subject. The teacher then imposes a role as an oppressor onto herself.
Ms. Ery is then viewed as an oppressor by her students because of this self-imposed role. Freire would say "Oppression - overwhelming control- is necrophilic; it is nourished by love of death, not life. The banking concept of education, which serves the interests of oppression, is also necrophilic…." Ms. Ery's control over her students, the classroom, and the lessons taught show "overwhelming control" on Ms. Ery's, as well as her authority figure's, behalf. Although the students are all in the class for the same purpose, to learn the necessary skills to earn a higher score, they don't all need help in the same areas. Ms. Ery's authority figure has forced her to teach only certain lessons to the students at certain times. Even if a student is ready to move on, that student must be held back at the level of the other students surrounding him or her. "Any situation in which some individuals prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence…" which is exactly what is being done by not allowing a student to further his or her knowledge when said student is ready to do so. By oppressing her students, the teacher can be portrayed as a "violent" individual because she hasn't allowed her students to flourish at each individual's own pace. This, however, is not entirely the fault of the teacher. Although she imposed the role of the oppressor onto herself she is also one of the oppressed. Hanging above her head is the fact that these students must do well on the exam they are being forced to take. This means that society has bound her hands with this test and, if her students do not do well, she is not seen as a "good teacher," which puts an extraordinary amount of pressure on her and this is what oppresses her.
Due to this way of teaching, students tend to be treated like "containers" because society says they are the students and this is how the students learn best. Freire says, "Narration (with the teacher as the narrator) leads the students to memorize mechanically the narrated content. Worse yet, it turns them into "containers," into "receptacles" to be filled by the teacher…." This happens quite frequently in Ms. Ery's class. The students copy, word for word, equation by equation, as Ms. Ery writes them. The knowledge she is "filling" the students with is thought to be lent to the students and owned by the teacher. The students then memorize all of this "lent" information, and they are said to have been "filled" with knowledge by their teacher. Freire also stated, "Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiqus and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat…." This occurs quite frequently as well. Ms. Ery does not exchange dialogue with her students; she speaks and the students listen and memorize all she has said to them that day. They do not question Ms. Ery, which means they do not have any "true knowledge," nor does society expect them to have "true knowledge." Freire said, "The students are not called up to know, but to memorize the contents narrated by the teacher. Nor do the students practice any act of cognition, since the object towards which that act should be directed is the property of the teacher…." The teacher owns the knowledge the students are being "filled" with and they are expected, by teachers and society, to feel lucky to be able to "borrow" this knowledge from the teacher because children in other countries are not lucky enough to have an education.
This attitude by teachers and parents oppresses the students who then accept a self-imposed passive role that does not teach them how to think on their own. Freire believes,
It is not surprising that the banking concept of education regards men as adaptable, manageable beings. The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world. The more completely they accept the passive role imposed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them.
Students just adapt to the world surrounding them. Ms. Ery said the students could not do math problems a certain way, and they didn't do it that way. They adapted to her way of teaching and accepted it for what it was education. Because students have learned to adapt so frequently to fit all the needs of their teachers, such as Ms. Ery's students, there is no room for the students to think for themselves nor have any real knowledge of their own. They will never know why they are getting certain answers in Ms. Ery's class, they will just accept that they are getting the correct answers and be satisfied with that. That is not true knowledge; "Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other…." as Freire had said. These students, without asking Ms. Ery why they came up with certain numbers as their answers, would never have true knowledge, just memorization skills and nothing more. "Hence in the name of the "preservation of culture and knowledge" we have a system which achieves neither true knowledge nor true culture…."
Freire feels this educational system needs to be changed as do I. I agree with Freire that students need an educational system in which "…the teacher-of-the-students and the students-of-the-teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges teacher-student with students-teachers. The teacher is no longer merely the one-who-teaches, but one who is himself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teach…." Teachers need to be open to new ideas; they need to be ready to learn from their students and to allow their students to have their own opinions and experiences. I do, however, know that some students and classes call for a system like the banking concept. Certain classes have certain rules, like English must follow certain rules of grammar, which can only be taught by a lecture. Science classes, however, can be more of a hands on experience, which not only teaches the students, but allows the students to teach the teacher. Some students also need the banking concept because being lectured is the only way they are able to learn or they need to be pressed harder than others to get work done. Others do not need it because they learn best by talking, debating, and being open to all different ideas. I believe that the teacher and the students must use dialogue and learn from one another during the educational process. I know society tends to press an education strictly following the confines of the banking concept, but it can be up to the teacher if a class is taught that way. Not everything has to be a lecture and not everything has to be done one way, like with Ms. Ery's math problems. If she was open to new ideas, she would have seen that the student did the work correctly and, if that is how the student felt comfortable doing it, she should not have had a problem with that. Authority needs to remain, but it also needs to be evenly disbursed to all because everyone is a teacher and everyone is a student.
The banking concept of education alone is not responsible for casting teachers and students into unfair roles. Some of this is done by the teacher him or herself; some of these roles are caused by society or higher authority figures, as was the case for Ms. Ery. Society also imposes various roles on the student, but the student self-imposes these roles, also. Despite the roles students and teachers are cast in by society and themselves, there is always a way to change the system. Maybe Freire was right when he talked of needing a "revolution" to change the ways of education. When students and teachers give up the traditional roles shown in the banking concept of education, maybe everyone will learn more than he or she thought possible. Maybe when everyone reflects back on a lifetime of education, after a change, all the "teachers" that the "student" had will be cherished for teaching him or her a lesson no one else had ever been able to teach in the past.
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