“In order to function, authority must be on the side of freedom, not against it.” Paulo Freire
What I understand from this article, is that teachers should
not oppress their students through their teaching techniques. This book was
published in 1968, almost fifty years ago. Fortunately, a lot has changed in
the education world since then. I believe teachers do not try to oppress their
students, maybe it happens sometimes because of the work-load/curriculum put
upon them. However, I think most teachers are trying to make thinkers out of
their students.
From the education that educators receive in 2017, teachers know the value
of engaging students in creative thinking and critical learning skills. I can
only imagine that teachers delight in witnessing their students find that “aha”
moment. Most teachers are not interested in being the “sage on the stage,” they
want to help guide their students, like a needle and thread, through the
learning process. Maybe fifty years ago, teachers didn’t know how important it
was to fully engage their students with researched pedagogical instruction. Education
has changed and matured over the years. Technology has become a factor in the
learning process, giving us even more tools to teach, learn, engage and grow with.
"Children are not vessels to be filled
but lamps to be lit." - SWAMI CHINMAYANANDA, Indian Spiritual Leader
According to author Paulo Freire, “the banking concept of
education,” means that the students are the depositories and the teacher is the
depositor. Through this concept, “knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who
consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing”
(1). This way of looking at education is backwards and antiquated, it hinders
the intellectual growth of students by making them be “receptors” of information.
Students are asked to memorize and re-state what they have “learned” without
any connection to their own life. When a person becomes aware of their
situation and can assign meaning to it (called the process of
conscientization), critical consciousness, then a change can be made toward
their location in life.
The problem with making the student a “receptor” is that it makes the
student an object instead of a human being. “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” (1).
Paulo Freire’s theory is based upon the fact that education is never
neutral, it can be used for domestication or liberation.
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