Paulo Freire's Essay: The Banking Concept Of Education

Paulo Freire, who was born in 1921 and died in 1997, was a Brazilian scholar who believed in liberation through humanization. Freire felt that no one could be authentically human while another prevents them from doing so. He also believed that full humanity required an act of fellowship and solidarity not isolation and individualism. He wrote a very powerful essay called The “Banking” Concept of Education” which was first published in Portuguese in 1968. Freire wrote, the students are not called to know, but to memorize the contents narrated by the teacher. Nor do the students practice an act of cognition, since the object towards which that act should be directed is the property of the teacher rather than a medium evoking the critical reflection of both teacher and students. ( Freire p 222). In other words, the student is learning only by memorization and is not given ample opportunities to gain a complete understanding …show more content…
One example would be a foreign language class which has a large list of material to cover in a limited amount of time. Learning a foreign language requires a lot of memorization and a lot of your grades will be to recall the vocabulary words on tests and quizzes. Teachers may find it difficult to think outside of the box in order to fully engage the students. However, if you consider Freire’s problem-posing style of education, you can see that open communication between the teacher and student allows the student to become more knowledgeable. Communication, even in a foreign language, encourages critical thinking and promotes liberation of the domination of the teacher. Freire 's philosophy on education centers on critical consciousness, where the oppressed recognize the causes of their oppression “so that through transforming action they can create a new situation, on which makes possible the pursuit of fuller humanity (Freire