Paulo Freire’s The Banking Concept of Education

In Paulo Freire”s ‘The “Banking” Concept of Education” the author uses several similes, metaphors and analogies to bring across his main point – the relationship between teachers and students, and the way the teaching process takes place. He feels they way students are taught isn”t as effective as it could be. The main analogy Freire uses, is that teachers “deposit” information into the students” minds, rather than actually having the students not only learn the material, but know that they know and understand the material presented.

He brings about the fact that the majority of what students are taught does not directly involve them or their lives making the material seem almost foreign. To better relate the students to the material, he states the teachers should present the material to students in a way that they understand how it relates to them. Which is very true, considering that when people know that they need to know something that will benefit them in a way apart from taking a test, they tend to retain the information better.

Furthermore he says that the teachers should not just teach, and the students should just learn, but that both teachers and students should go through the process of learning together, eliminating the gap of difference that exists between the two. Not only does this eliminate the boredom that often occurs in classrooms, but actually is motivation for students to speak out sharing what they know, which further increases their knowledge, as well as their peers.

This selection by Freire could be summed up by a very fitting quote by Plutarch, “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”