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Martha Shivers
EN106 First Year Writing Seminar II: Academic Research and Writing.
Professor: Ms. Sabrina Vargas-Ortiz
October 29, 2015
Summary of The Banking Concept of Education
The Banking Concept of Education, an essay from Pedagogy of the Oppressed by
Paulo Freire describes how the author views the concept of education and how it compares to a
banking system. The title grabs the readers attention from the beginning as it could be
interpreted in a positive or negative way, depending on the readers way of understating this
essay. Many of us have never really taken the time to sit and think the reason why our curriculum
is set up the way it is; we fail to ask questions as to who decides what courses must we complete
in order to obtain our degree. Freires essay identifies the issues of our education system and he
addresses the problems students and teachers face in the education community.
Freire shares the frustration many students have with our education system right now.
Why must we the students pay thousands of dollars to our academic institutions and spend
countless hours in classrooms working on building our careers but yet we are not guaranteed a
job in the field we have worked so hard for. In Freires essay he makes a great point to which
most of us students can relate: Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the
students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the
teacher issues communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize,
and repeat. 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. They do, it is true,
have the opportunity to become collectors or cataloguers of the things they store. But in the last
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analysis, it is men themselves who are filed away through the lack of creativity, transformation,
and knowledge in this (at best) misguided system. Are we just going through the motions in the
classroom? Are we even interested in what we are learning? Does the instructor/student
interaction even count anymore? These are some of the questions that came to mind from reading
this essay. I agree with Freires opinion of the lack of creativity on our part and how majority of
us do not challenge any theory being presented to us by the instructors, a part of why we do not
challenge or dig deeper into the why? is because most of us trust the material that has been
used in the past and assume that this is the way it is and we accept it without hesitation.
The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop
the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers
of that world. The more completely they accept the passive role imposed on them, the more they
tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in
them. As students we want our voices to be heard and we want to make a change with the
education system, but many of us hold back on those ideas. The fear of not being taken serious
by those appointed over us keeps us from voicing our opinions because we are comfortable
knowing that we just need to learn the bare minimum and memorize what we think will be in the
test and not go over it once the semester is over. Freires piece served as a wakeup call for many
students who want the education system to change. This essay was very informative and full of
many of the realities a lot of us have to deal with when it comes to our education. I agree with
Freires views and also hope changes are made to the system.
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References:
Freire, P. (2004) Pedagogy of the Opressed.