Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” Chapter 2

This article currently sees education as banking system, students are given information to memorize and told to go from there. And I agree with this, classically most schools are looking at educating students as a way of forcing information into their heads without giving them the tools to expand and work on and with that information. The details of a The Odyssey, are not important in the grand scheme of life, but the skills that should be taught alongside the book are what is important in the world of education.

I like to believe that in recent years, including those that I was in high school, education has become less about the “banking” model and more about helping students learn skills and think critically. Knowledge is an abstract concept, we all seem to know what it is but when asked to define it we struggle. Knowledge can be seen as the facts that are being taught to students in schools, but those have their own word “facts”. Knowledge can also be seen as the application of those facts, but that isn’t really knowledge it is just using what is given. Knowledge, to me, is something that is constantly growing and maturing and changing with each person. There is an abundance of facts and ideas that are being put into our heads every day, but how someone choose to use and apply those facts to life is what knowledge really is. Having the skills to think critically about facts and other ideas, adapting or rejecting them into relation of one’s own thought processes and ideas. This is knowledge and schools are working harder and harder to help students acquire and use knowledge. This can be seen in the application of the Common Core standards. The standards are working to teach students skills, the goals are for teacher to teach students skills and not just the content of a novel or textbook. The “banking” system that education is seen as is changing in the public schools, students are being challenged to look at facts and make them into knowledge through critical thinking and other skills that are taught with the Common Core standards.