Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire was a book that criticizes the conventional education system. The banking model Freire proposed is that students only receive, file, and deposit what the teacher provides. The only thing students are learning to do is memorizing information that the teacher “deposits” in the students’ brains. The job of teachers is not so the students can memorize as much information as possible but to teach and get the students to think and analyze the work that is given. Therefore, instead of strengthening the students’ knowledge they are only strengthening the oppression the teachers have on them. This causes the students to be disempowered while the teachers are highly empowered, at the students’ expense.
My encounter that was similar to the banking model happened in high school. In tenth grade, one of my teachers wanted us to read a book. To make sure we were reading it, she would give us quizzes. However, these were not ordinary quizzes. She would not ask what was the setting or main theme of the book. She would write a quote from the book and we would have to fill in missing words from the quote. This requires students to memorize the whole book, in case she would ask for a word from a specific page. Quizzes were a decent amount of our grade, so I started memorizing the book. The positive side of this was that I learned how to memorize a lot of pages in a short amount of time. The negative side of it was, I was not actually learning. I was memorizing because I wanted to do well in the class. We were not actually analyzing the book and learning the deeper meaning of it, so I gained nothing. The overall reason I was doing it was because she was my teacher and I had to do it. This is what the school system has turned to, students memorizing texts because the teacher asked them to.
Rachel,
Your post is similar to mine in that we both analyze and explain Freire’s proposed Banking Model in depth. In your post, I see that you tied a personal anecdote to your explanation strengthening your claim of how the banking model is applicable to a lot of students. I had the same experience in my high school; I was forced to memorize without understanding the concept which didn’t really help me enjoy my class very much. On last note, I like your take on this model. AwSoMe Post!!!
Thank you Rafsan, I worked hard on it!
Rachel,
Your post was similar to mine because we both described the Banking model in a way where it allowed us to gain knowledge about a certain topic but not actually learn the background of that topic. I also experienced insane teachers in high school that made it seem like you only had that one class and had to do a bunch of things to pass it. I enjoyed reading your post. I liked how you explained the banking theory and thoroughly described it to your own experience.
Thanks, Sairah!
Hi Rachel,
I liked how you used words that connect to banking such as how the teacher “deposits” information into the students’ brain. Your post sticked out to me because I had the same experience in my high school. It wasn’t helpful because we didn’t gain anything out of these quizzes. We were just doing it to receive a good grade for points counted toward the class. A normal system of teaching should be introduced where the students actually gain something out of what they are learning and what they’re being tested on.
-Sharona Abramova
Rachel,
In addition, your post is similar to mine because we both experienced this model in high school and your explanation of the banking model was a thorough explanation but you included a nice metaphor. Also, we both agreed that the banking model is truly at the expense of the students and empowers teachers.