Paulo Freison's Critical Review: The Banking Concept Of Education

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In the American society during the 1960s, many people struggled to find true identity. Generally, when a greater force controls people, it becomes more difficult for them to think independently. A testimony to this generalization is Paulo Freire’s “banking system” in which educators facilitate student’s intellectual conformity and condemn individualism and freedom to express themselves. Freire disapproves of the banking concept and wants to change this system to eventually stop the corruption it has brought to society. Similarly, Carl Davidson’s manifesto, “Student Power: A Radical View” urges students to form a revolution against the education system and government, while William Deresiewsicz’s contemporary article “ Don’t Send Your Kid to
In his text, Freire says that, “This is the ‘banking’ concept of education, in which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits” (Freire 218). Freire uses a banker’s diction such as “receiving,” “filing,” and “deposits” to emphasize the relationship between this form of education and a money transaction. Freire believes that the main oppressors are not the teachers, but understands that teachers facilitate the oppression of students. However, Freire also believes that the teachers, along with the students, are becoming dehumanized. In Freire, Davidson, and Deresiewsicz’s perspective the oppressors can be the high-order administrator like the Board of Education or at most the government. While facilitating the oppressing, teachers forget their opinions and style of teaching because they follow the guidelines and rules on how to teach the children. Although this is the standard technique and style for educating students, Freire opposes this

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