Pedagogy of the Oppressed

The second chapter of Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed brings up some rather interesting ideas. The first one that I am going to talk about is his views on how the banking method of education is an oppressive method. Before reading this chapter I never really thought of the traditional way or banking method as a way to oppress students, but I can see where Freire is coming from. In the banking method, we are taught that we are nothing more than a thing for teachers to put their knowledge into "Education becomes an act of depositing, the students as the depositories the teachers as depositors. This type of education is suffering from narration sickness" and that this knowledge is a gift rather than a right. This idea that students are just a cog in the machine coupled with the fact that students are conditioned to follow the rules blindly and are in fact praised for this conformity and are punished if they even deviate slightly from these norms. Freire's alternative to this oppressive system is a more inclusive system in which the student and teacher engage in a collaborative open exchange of ideas that fosters learning by both parties “Problem posing education breaks the vertical patterns characteristic of banking education and the teacher and the student become “jointly responsible for a process in which both can grow.” I have found that as I get further along in my education, I find myself gravitating more towards the idea of openly exchanging ideas with students. In my opinion as well as Freire’s this open exchange of information is the best way to go about education and we are slowly progressing towards this idea. Overall, this chapter has been a very eye-opening experience and if I ever have the time I plan on eventually read the rest of this book.