In Paulo Friere’s novel Pedagogy and Power, he ridicules and dismisses the education system by creating a metaphor called the banking model of education. Friere constructs the banking model of education to appropriately describe the relationship between student and teacher as an oppressive one. Through Friere’s eyes, the teacher is seen as an all knowing being and the student an empty vessel. Their relationship consists of the teacher simply depositing all of their knowledge into the students like containers, establishing an inequality and reinforcing that there is only one right way to learn. It takes away any possibility that the teacher might not have all the right answers and takes away the possibility that the teacher could possibly benefit from a student’s knowledge (the student’s knowledge outside of the education system is ignored). Creativity is stripped away as well, when teaching methods remain rigid and authoritative. The students simply receive and memorize the knowledge bestowed upon them and spit it back out when taking standardized testing. This is not beneficial to either the donor or the recipient, however Friere is obviously assigning empowerment to the educator and disempowerment to
Before I went to college and read thought provoking and controversial pieces like Pedagogy and Power, I preached the banking model of education to anyone who would listen to me without even knowing they were Friere’s words. My entire 12 years of mandatory schooling within the education system is just flash images of me sitting in an uncomfortable desk listening to my teacher drone on and participating with answers and questions I knew they only wanted to hear. To question my teacher’s position as the proprietor was not only deemed as disrespectful but foolish as well. I don’t think I can narrow down my experience of the banking concept of education down to one moment in one class when I truly believe that my entire education from elementary school through to high school conformed to what Friere argued about. High School more so than perhaps middle school and elementary school, made me feel small and insignificant. The only class that made me feel as if what I had to say was important had to have been my English classes, but even then there was a right way to analyze a certain piece of literature that I might not have always got right. Having to deal with standardized testing (ELA’s, NY regents, etc) made me feel as though learning was a chore and pressured me into an anxiety ridden state of mind for not being able to digest and memorize all of the information thrown at me adequately. The only positives that I can think of concerning this way of learning as the student, is being open to the idea and prospect that we all still have plenty of learning to do and grow from.
