Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Michelle Nelson
Marisa Enos
ENG 111.W03
In Paulo Freire’s “The Banking Concept of Education” he discusses what he feels is the
main problem in the educational system today. Freire argues that the teachers simply narrate
material to their students in a lifeless manner. This method of teaching is what he calls the
“banking concept”, meaning that the teachers are only depositing information to the students,
Freire’s problem with this style of teaching and learning is that there is no creativity or
critical thinking involved. Students are fed information to be retained until asked to repeat that
information on demand. He compares students to containers that are waiting to be filled by the
teacher’s knowledge. The more information the teacher is able to feed to the students, the better
the teacher must be. When these students are able to accurately repeat the information when
requested, the teacher and the student are both deemed successful. According to the author, this
banking concept of education fails to allow people to truly be human. Freire states that
“knowledge emerges only trough invention and re-invention, through restless, impatient,
continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each
other” (1).
In this banking concept of education, the teachers are those who consider themselves
knowledgeable and the students are perceived as ignorant. This oppressive behavior allows the
teacher to justify their role as a powerful being. The students accept their role, and fall in place
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as the eager empty vessels waiting to be filled. Freire believes that the students aren’t the only
subjects that need to be learning, however. He states that the teachers should also be learning
from their students, and students therefore have an important role as teachers as well. This is not
present in the banking style of teaching. There are many traits of the banking concept which all
contradict the sharing of student and teacher roles. Teachers do the teaching and students will be
taught. The teacher talks and the student listens. The teacher chooses, and the student complies.
The teacher chooses what material to teach, and the student, with no input on the matter, must
adapt.
prohibits the development of the critical thinking and creativity that he believes makes people
human as opposed to mere objects. Students are encouraged to adapt to their passive role. If the
student is given the opportunity to question or challenge the teacher or the information, this
would undermine the oppressive role of the teacher. The easier the student adapts to their
situation, the more easily they can be dominated, which is what Freire believes is the goal of the
depository teaching.
Freire argues that the revolutionary educator should instead encourage critical thinking
and creativity. By allowing students to have an active role in their education, the student and the
teacher essentially become partners. They work together as both students and teachers,
simultaneously, to achieve the overall goal of educating each other. No one person is more
important than the other, there is no oppression or dominance as there is in the banking concept
It is important, according to Freire, to reject the banking concept right from the beginning
if one is truly committed to liberation. His answer to the banking concept is what he calls
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“problem-posing” education. This style of education embraces the idea that people are teaching
each other, as opposed to having an appointed teacher and a room full of students. Information
is not simply transferred from one (the teacher) to another (the student.) They work together as a
team and thrive on dialogue between themselves. The teacher can still present information to the
student, but now the student is permitted to give their input. At this point the teacher can then
reconsider their original thoughts and engage in meaningful communication. The students and
the teachers are both learning and adapting and adjusting their concepts of reality based on the
conversations in which they partake together. The banking concept would not encourage such
behavior as this would effectively undermine the dominance of the teacher and prohibit that
dominance to occur.
The banking concept and problem-posing education contradict each other entirely.
Banking education resists dialog, inhibits creativity, and denies people of their ability to become
fully human. There is a path to follow and the students are led down that path without question.
The problem-posing concept encourages dialog and creativity, and allows people to be aware of
their unfinished existence. The student is allowed to create their own path. Freire believes that
“any situation in which some individuals prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry
is one of violence. The means used are not important; to alienate human beings from their own
When faced with oppressive and dominant behavior, Freire believes it is essential to fight
for freedom. Only then will people be allowed to get past the false reality that has been
deposited into them through the banking concept. Only then will people have the ability to be
fully human, with an accurate concept of the transforming reality of the world they live in.
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There is no in between, no way to partially use the banking concept while striving to achieve the
goal of the problem-posing concept. According to Paulo Freire, the two cannot exist together.
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Works Cited