Vogel 1

Jade Vogel

William Reader

ENG.111.M14

19 March 2019

Idle Education

“Work smarter, not harder.” My mother always repeated this proverb to me growing up

whenever I put more effort into something that didn’t require it. What she thought was over

complicating, I thought was being thorough. I interpreted this as my signal to stop trying so hard,

and do the bare minimum. I noticed my peers were experiencing this learned mentality and

continued to live by it in college. Students like me, coming from low income schools or

overcrowded schools, mastered just getting by with their education. Many students from these

areas are not allowed the luxury of education being their main focus; they constantly have to be

concerned with socioeconomic obstacles that are out of their control. Granting themselves a

break seems to only fit when they’re supposed to be getting an education. Students gladly submit

to information being fed to them and receiving an education that does not require them to build

upon what they have previously learned. This stagnant education is present in many institutions,

where students believe they are “furthering” their education. Many of them feel the societal

pressure to attend college and obtain a degree as a way out of their current situation, despite

having no prior involvement with an education that fosters innovative and conceptual ideas.

Consequently, these students will go through college and life not knowing how to participate, let

alone facilitate, a conversation about the world as it relates to their own adult learning

experiences.
 Vogel 2

Some students are okay with having a dormant education; in fact they love it. They don’t

mind receiving what Brazilian educator Paulo Freire calls the “banking concept of education”

(1). This concept suggests that the lessons being taught by teachers promote oppression of the

basic human right of creativity (Freire 2). To students, it doesn’t feel dehumanizing like Freire

suggests; but they are aware that this type of education is wrong. Columbia University professor,

Jack Mezirow supports this idea in his article “Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice” by

adding that “Adult learners themselves view learning to think as autonomous, responsible

persons as an important educational goal” (89). Students know that they should not be silenced

by lessons that are intended to be the standard. They choose to continue being fed information

because it is easier to regurgitate that information for a test and forget it, than to fight for an

education that they deserve when it’s not given to them. Many of these student’s don’t know

where to begin to ask for a proper education either because they aren’t familiar with anything

outside of what they’ve already been taught.

With mentalities that consistently uphold the belief that doing more work than needed is

useless, why are students expected to go above and beyond to achieve a valuable education?

Value in the sense that students are truly learning and able to use and analyze the information for

further education or a job in their chosen field. Professor at the Graduate School of Education

and Information Studies at UCLA, Mike Rose, describes this value as “critical literacy” (112) in

his article, “Politics of Remediation.” He defines “critical literacy” as, “...framing an argument or

taking someone else’s argument apart, systematically inspecting a document, an issue, or an

event, synthesizing different points of view, applying a theory to disparate phenomena, and so

on” (Rose 112). Most of these students come to college unable to perform these literacies and

having no desire to do so. These concepts involve students having some sort of knowledge about
 Vogel 3

these matters, and then utilizing their creativity to devise their own ideas about it. The issue that

most of these students struggle with is actually using their creativity after that right has been

stripped away during countless suspensions for “acting out,” the numerous times we’ve been told

we are wrong in the middle of a sentence, or the humiliating laugh from students and teachers

alike for having differing perspectives. These types of environments in schools affect how

students perceive education.

Teachers that participate in learning with these students have to recognize this habit that

students have and help reverse the effects that it has caused on their education. As long as

students are willingly passive to their own learning, educators will continue to use abuse their

power. Teachers will do this without even realizing they are; it is often easier for them to try and

jam material into students’ heads rather than increase participation within a classroom. Freire

does highlight teachers who unknowingly “bank” but focuses on the teachers who don’t view the

ideas of their students as valid. Many of the professors that use lifeless teaching methods view

their own learning as complete. They do not have the ability to learn from their students and the

new connections that are made when a fresh mind enters the classroom. In order to prevent

students from allowing themselves to be passive, teachers must be able to integrate multiple

points of view, including their own, into a lesson and make it learnable for everyone. This is

where many professors have to reflect on themselves and how they view teaching. Robert

Leamnson offers his thoughts about college professors using his knowledge as a Professor of

Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth by saying: “Seldom is anyone asked to

teach at the college level in an area foreign to their experience. This means that for most of us

most of the time, teaching involves rehearsing what is familiar to us. But without a philosophy

that includes some consideration of brain biology we are likely to launch our familiar topics with
 Vogel 4

the assumption that our students’ brains are pretty much like our own, and need only new

information” (69). Professors who assume that students are able to comprehend a whole subject

after one lesson, along with other class subjects simultaneously, are only inhibiting their own

adult learning. The pit that many of these professors fall in is best said by Mezirow who asserts

that, “New information is only a resource in the adult learning process. To become meaningful,

learning requires that new information be incorporated by the learner into an already well-

developed symbolic frame of reference, an active process involving thought, feelings, and

disposition” (91). The issue that some students have however, is that they don’t have these

refined frameworks to base this new information off of, so they continue to struggle and feel

pressured to pass at all costs. Teachers must realize that there is a whole marginalized group of

students that are not capable of performing the objectives asked of them, and be able to

recognize and help those students.

This is what allows the cycle of a stagnant education to continue in education. Students

from low-income, overcrowded areas must be able to realize that their education is something

that they control. They have to think autonomously in order to see that an effective education is

useful and be able to help change the way they learn. Professors have to see that not every

student was created equal, and that some students need help creating their own opinions by

allowing them to feel comfortable in their learning spaces. It is imperative that the realization of

accountability for our own adult learning and education becomes more prominent because

without it, education will forever be a cycle of stagnancy.

Works Cited
 Vogel 5

Freire, Paulo. “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education.” (Instructor Handout). Pp. 1-12.

Leamnson, Robert. “The Biological Basis of Learning and Today’s First Year Students.”

Exploring Connection: Learning in the 21st Century, Pearson, 2016, pp. 65-85.

Mezirow, Jack. “Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice.” Exploring Connection: Learning

in the 21st Century, Pearson, 2016, pp.86-92.

Rose, Mike. “Politics of Remediation.” Exploring Connections: Learning in the 21st Century,

Pearson, 2016, pp. 99-123.