The following is a guest contribution for the #EduReform Project from Jamie Davis.
“Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in communication. If it is true that thought has meaning only when generated by action upon the world, the subordination of students to teachers becomes impossible.”
So writes Brazilian educator Paulo Freire in his landmark book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed“, a political work of critical pedagogy that liken the traditional mode of education with an oppressive act. In a particularly important section of the book called The Banking Concept of Education Freire explains how the traditional form of education can simply be described as one in which the teacher ‘deposits’ information into the students’ brains, thus preparing the students to accept a passive role in society, integrating dehumanized beings into the powerful social apparatus.
Freire argues that in order for students to gain knowledge, to truly be educated, they must be liberated. The educational system must change. No longer can a student be subordinate to a teacher. Instead teachers become teacher-students and students become student-teachers, all on an ideally equal field of play. No longer can the educational system assume a dichotomy between the world and man. Instead, students must learn how to enact change upon the world.
Unfortunately, they can’t do this under the oppressive banking system of education.
Therefore, we need to change things.
Sounds great, right? Do you agree? Sure you do.
All that’s left is to get started.
Well, I have some good news and some bad news.
The good news is that Freire and others truly believe this change is possible. Freire asserts that educators can liberate students. “To achieve this,” Freire writes, “[the educator] must be a partner of the students in his relations with them.” Communication is key in this partnership. Only through trusting communication can true education occur.
The bad news is that the liberation of students would require a total transformation of the educational system. Freire argues that teachers who try to act as liberators within the banking system of education are certainly well-intentioned, but merely further dehumanizing their students. Now can you see how difficult a task we have before us? No wonder nothing has changed since Freire published this book over 40 years ago. The traditional educational, no matter how out of date, have such a strong hold on our educational system that it is extremely hard to change them.
And so this is how I disagree with Freire. I do truly believe change can occur within the system and I believe it can occur gradually. There are ways that teachers, students, parents, politicians, and others can effect positive change in the educational system. There must be communication, compassion, and openness in how we interact with others in the educational system and in how we discuss education. I believe that actions based on these values can lead to change no matter how entrenched the system truly is.
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