Paulo Friere's Banking Concept of Education

1. Paulo Freire's concept of “narration sickness" refers to the idea where the teacher simply talks on and on and the students must listen like little receptacles of knowledge. The teacher is just filling up the students with facts. They go on and on until the student can’t take anymore information. 

2. This idea of “narration sickness” mimics the No Child Left Behind Act standardized testing practices in our society in that teachers send out facts for the students to memorize for one test. The student records, memorizes, and repeats these ideas without even questioning or understanding the significance of these ideas. The students are filled with the knowledge of what is going to be on the test and the test only. They are learning for a standardized test not for the joy of learning. They are turned into “receptacles” to be “filled” by the teacher.

3. In my sophomore year of high school, I had an English teacher who used many banking concepts of education in her classroom. She was a control freak and didn’t like when students outsmarted her. She was authoritative over the classroom and was more worried about controlling our class than teaching us. She would drill information into our brains and make us do pointless assignments to prepare us for the Exit Exam that all sophomores have to take. Being an accelerated class, this was annoying and she made us feel like we were children. She didn’t make the facts relevant to our daily lives. She just rambled on and on about how it was important to know these things for the test. If you didn’t have the same beliefs as her then she would alienate you from the rest of the class which is the one of the key issues in the banking concept of education. 

I feel as if this type of educator made me dislike learning English. I had this class after lunch and I despised going to it because she would just make us memorize ideas and write essays using formatted prompts. There was no thought process involved behind any of her assignments that I turned in. I couldn’t have an identity in that class because I had to conform to her ideas and beliefs. For example, we were writing an essay on a passage we had read and I turned in my introduction for editing and when I got it back there was a big black line through it and red pen screaming rewrite. This hurt me inside because I had worked hard on this introduction and I had helped all my friends formulate theirs. They had all gotten good reviews and all I got was “a slap in the face.” Luckily, I ended the year acing her ridiculous final and moving onto AP English in the fall. I loved my AP English class and my teacher actually appreciated what I was writing by giving me feedback. Overall, I feel, through this experience, that the banking concept of education does more harm than good. 

4. My exposure to AP Biology my senior year stands out as my best memory of having an excellent teacher. Mrs. Henderson is one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. She absolutely practiced the concepts of problem-posing education and dialogue. She allowed us to decide what labs we wanted to complete within reason. Instead of just throwing out facts, she would assigned us certain chapters to read and then we would have to present in front of the class of what we had learned. I found this to be most beneficial because I mastered the material really well because I was honestly interested. We would have class discussions and were given the opportunity to ask questions while also formulating our own ideas for communication. We were allowed to apply our learning to real life by making models, performing dissections, or experimenting possible problems. She was also caring and understanding of our busy schedules. She realized that we weren’t just taking her class and that we were stressed out with other classes. She was approachable and always kept her door open if you ever needed help. This was important because it allowed for a more one on one aspect and you could ask more personal questions that you wouldn’t want to ask in front of the class especially if you didn’t understand a concept. 

Mrs. Henderson was always happy to be teaching and she showed that she loved biology. She enjoyed expanding our minds with new ideas and wanted us to excel. She was like a walking encyclopedia for biology and if she didn’t know the answer on the top of her head, she would do everything in her power to get you the answer. She even went so far as to help us with our calculus homework which amazed me that she actually cared about our success by going out of her way to find websites that simplified the complexity of the subject. We did various experiments and group assignments in her class which allowed for us to be very hands on instead of just reading the chapter and taking tests all the time. I found I learned more by making models or performing an experiment rather than reading about an experiment that had been completed. This class stands out in my mind because looking back on everything, I truly had a good time in this class. It was tough at times, but my teacher’s attitude about the subject made me more interested. 

5. I believe that the Athenians that Neil Postman speaks of in “My Graduation Speech” would embrace the concept of a liberated, problem-posing education that Freire spoke of in his “banking concept of education. Here at USF, I have a few classes that practice the problem-posing and dialogue concept. These courses include Communications, USF Experience, and LAR 112. My communications class is the true essence of dialogue because the whole class consists of us the students discussing our ideas about communication and why it is important. Our professor is there to guide us through the process and mediate. In this way, he is teaching us how to cope in real life situations. I believe that my psychology class is almost to the idea of the practice of dialogue, but I feel it could benefit more that way. Sometimes the class is boring when my professor just lectures for 50 minutes straight. It has been pretty interesting lately though because he has tied examples in that matter in real life which makes them more tangible.