Freire Article Response

From Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Paulo Freire
Suzanne - Laura - Colleen - Cate

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."

William Butler Yeats

Paulo Freire communicates that the current educational process is flawed and ineffective. Teachers who simply deposit information into their students as though they were banking creates a culture of oppression, where students are frustrated and passive learners, void of independent thinking and problem solving strategies, and absent of creativity. When teachers teach by simply depositing material into the students’ ‘empty vessels,’ they create an affective culture of memorization and recitation, where knowledge isn’t internalized and applied. Freire professes, in "Pedagogy of the Oppressed," that teachers can prevent this banking system of learning by understanding that:

*Learning is social
* Learning should be authentic and meaningful
* As teachers, we should harness individuality of our students and use that to our advantage
* Students and teachers should have a working relationship where students are encouraged to problem solve and discover on their own where the teacher provides guidance
* Education should not be used to control and create conformity
* Both the teacher and students should be reflective

"Tell me, I'll forget. Show me, I may remember. But involve me and I'll understand."
-Chinese Proverb

Learning should be authentic and meaningful
-Laura-

As educators, we are obligated to teach our students in an authentic and meaningful way. It is imperative to teach to the individual needs of the students in our classroom. Students must be involved in their own learning and be provided with practical experiences that can be connected to their lives. When students can relate to the concepts being taught, learning has a greater purpose for them. In contrast, if students are asked to memorize and retain information given by their teacher then they are being treated as empty "containers" only to be "filled" with ideas that are irrelevant to them. This "banking" concept that Freire opposes, suggests that "education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor" (p.57). When students are taught in such a way, they are unable to see the value of what they are supposed to gain knowledge of. In order for learning to be of importance to students, it needs to be authentic and meaningful.

Education should not be used to control and create conformity
As teachers, we should harness individuality of our students and use that to our advantage
-Colleen-

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence + character- that is the true goal of education."
Martin Luther King Jr.

One of the key points made throughout Freire’s article From Pedagogy of the Opressed is that education should not be used to control and create conformity. The article begins by explaining the ‘banking’ concept of education where the teacher leads students to, "…memorize mechanically narrated content. Worse yet, to turn them into ‘containers’, into ‘receptacles’ to be ‘filled’ by the teacher." He continues by writing that education has simply become ‘an act of depositing.’ If we are to be successful educators who inspire our students to learn, then we too must reject this idea of ‘banking’ education and in its place, promote both inquiry and discovery in the classroom. I think we can all remember the teachers we have encountered along our journey who simply lectured and told us to memorize. We are not robots who benefit from committing this useless information into our long-term memory and regurgitating it at any given moment. Instead, we should promote the idea of independent thinking and push students to take ownership of their learning. I can remember back to college when I was taking NSC301 which was the science class for elementary teachers. I wanted nothing more than the professor to just tell me what I needed to know so that I could study and get the course over with. She refused to cave in to the ‘banking’ style of education and instead pushed me to build my own conceptual understandings. As a result, the course turned out to be one of the most beneficial I had taken because it taught me how to think critically. I was so proud of the work I had done because I’d had to put so much ‘brain power’ into the thinking behind what I wrote. Friere is calling us to "reject the banking concept in its entirety" and capitalize on ‘Liberating Education’ which bases itself on authentic thinking, creativity and an understanding that reality is always transforming. As the age old saying goes, "Give a man fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime." Instead of ‘giving’ our students what they need to know to pass the standardized tests, we must instead teach them skills that will help them throughout their lifetime.

Learning is social
-Suzanne-

Freire’s chapter from The Pedagogy of the Oppressed illuminated many critical themes and perspectives about education. The overarching theme of this chapter espoused on analyzing education’s potential to oppress members of society. Freire expounds on the concept of "problem-posing" education as a format by which to eliminate oppression in education. Problem-posing involves inquiry, learning and teaching of curriculum by students as well as teachers. Moreover, in "problem-posing" education, teachers and students trade roles and responsibilities through the process of learning. Social learning is a key and central concept for "problem-posing education."
An essential component to success in problem-posing education relates to dialogue between teachers and students. Dialogue should shape the pace and flow of curriculum. "[P]roblem-posing education regards dialogue as indispensable tot he act of cognition which unveils reality." (Freire, 64) The teacher does not fill the students with bankable knowledge. Instead the communication and exchange of knowledge between the teacher and students empowers and transcends society to new, liberated, dimensions. The importance of communication in an oppression-free, progressive educational climate is particularly illuminated from this quote from the chapter: "Yet only through communication can human life hold meaning. The teacher’s thinking is authenticated only by the authenticity of the students’ thinking... Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in communication." (Freire, 61)
Although this article is heavily philosophical, I find it to be extremely applicable to present day education. As mandated by local, state and (as of 2000) the federal government, part of our job is to fill students with "bankable" knowledge in the form of GLCE’s and success on standardized tests in order to deem ourselves, our schools and our communities as achieving adequate yearly progress or not. Freire would undoubtedly characterize this form of education as a means of oppression. Who determines this bankable knowledge? How is this bankable knowledge oppressing our students, schools and communities? When and how did we reach a point in our society where bankable knowledge weighs so heavily on our schools? These are all questions that entered my mind in responses to Freire’s chapter.
This article also made me question the merits of a new trend in education. Many successful charter schools (such as KIPP and Green Dot) that I read about lately have made waves in national media for the past 5 years. These schools have found ways to reach disadvantaged, inner-city youth and ready them for success in college. Many critics of these charter schools note the "paternailistic" nature of these schools. Critics of these schools state that these school indoctrinate students to a middle-class culture and mentality which may or may not deviate from the backgrounds, values and traditions they find in their own homes, families and communities. For the most part, these students are succeeding and achieving in these charter schools and are also moving on towards earning college degrees. At a quick glance, this is what we want for our students - success in school and in life - right? However, after reading Freire’s chapter, I now question whether conformity towards a cultural value system may actually resemble oppression and submission by members of society.....

Students and teachers should have a working relationship where students are encouraged to problem solve and discover on their own where the teacher provides guidance
Both the teacher and students should be reflective
-Cate-

Education should be collaborative and innovative. Students and teachers need to be willing to examine themselves critically and as an active participant in the learning process. Freire asserts that, "[K]nowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry men pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other." (58) The teacher must be an authentic participant in the learning with the students. True education is not that of making deposits of knowledge, but rather creating an authentic and real-world learning environment where students are not merely passive listeners, but actively engaged and excited about their educational goals and applications.
Freire explains that to achieve this collaborative learning environment, the teacher "must be a partner of the students in his relations with them." (60) The teacher must form a relationship with the student and create a bond of community within the classroom. The teacher and the students must actively participate in a dialogue of their collaborative learning where, "they become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow." (Freire 63) Students examine the direction and purpose of their education with the teacher and their discourse guides the presentation of the content. I feel that although teachers face potential obstacles (GLECs, district and state assessments, common curriculum) for this collaborative learning environment, teachers still have the capability to "present[s] material to the students for their consideration, and reconsider [s] his earlier considerations as the students express their own." (Freire 64) Giving students choice in delivery, assessment, and pace, even if the content is set, will create a collaborative and reflective learning environment and liberate the students to think as individuals and to be engaged and in control of their learning. Providing a learning community where the teacher and the students think critically about their learning, communicate authentically, and are engaged in real-world learning opportunities leads to free-standing, independent, and compassionate citizens and life-long learners.