The Banking Concept of Education

“You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him to find it within himself.” -Gallileo Galilei (1564-1642)

The Audacity of Hope: The Banking Concept of Education

In Freire’s essay, The Banking Concept of Education, he advances the idea that the inherent objective of the “banking concept” is to educate the poor and illiterate to remain “oppressed”; he implies that this is accomplished in part by “narrative” teaching methods, and the lack of critical thinking required of the students. He builds on ideas originally postulated by both Marie Montessori and John Dewy to create an alternative pedagogy he calls “Problem-posing” to counter the effects of the “banking concept.”

While analyzing the effects of the “banking concept,” he draws a parallel between the “oppressed” (majority), and the “oppressor” (dominant minority). He forges the conclusion that the “banking concept” is designed to effect the oppressed to adapt to the reality of their condition, therefore, the oppressor can shape the reality of the oppressed,

while, simultaneously the ability of the oppressed to shape their reality in their own interest is diminished . “Oppression” is a design of the “banking concept”;” for by controlling the “material resources” that sustain institutions, education in this case, the powerful [(capitalists, i.e., upper class of owner and high- level executives)] can deny resources needed to make vital identity claims and to experience selves as agents” (Schwalbe, 1993:342).

The power or flaw of the “banking concept”, (depending on which group you happen to belong to) is that it does not require that the student engage in critical thinking. “It is through education (an “ideological state apparatus” in Althusserian terms), by which the members of the dominant group, the upper class of owners and high- level executives (bourgeois capitalist) in this day and age, impose their will (without force) throughout society’ (Mocombe 2007:2-4).The role of the “banking concept” becomes a

method “to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity” (Mocombe 2007:2-4).

He uses the metaphor “deposit” to represent the manner in which information is bestowed to the students. The idea that the students are an “empty vessel” is at the core of the “the banking concept of education” (Freier:315); therefore, the curriculum does not take into consideration esthetic needs of the students as, “the practice of freedom”, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world”(Freire 2000 [1970]: 34). The information is chosen by the educator as the “depositor” and “deposited” into the student; “the scope of action allowed the student extends only as far as receiving, filing and storing; which the students patiently receive, memorize and repeat” (Freire:319).

The teacher-student relationship is described as “narrative” in character. “This relationship involves a “narrating Subject (the teacher) and patient, listening objects (the students)” (Freire:318). He says that information “deposited” in this manner tends to “become lifeless and petrified” (Freire:318). Because of the “narrative” style of teaching, he states, “education is suffering from narration sickness” (Freire:318).

The “problem-posing” method of education that Freire asserts as an alternative to the ‘banking concept’ encourages students to question and pursue inquiry. This change in focus is facilitated by a shift in the student-teacher relationship; the student learns from the teacher, and the teacher learns from the students; a relationship where, all points of view and are examined and respected. The objective of this educational paradigm