Blog Post 6

Chapter 8 of Educational Foundations talks a lot about the banking concept of education.  Much like depositing checks into one's bank account, teachers are sought to deposit checks filled with knowledge into the minds of their students.  The problem with this is that students are not being communicated with, but are instead being lectured and being told the difference between right and wrong.  The learning abilities of these students are not being judged on how they come to certain conclusions, but is instead being measured by whether or not the students are able to temporarily regurgitate the information they are fed, back onto a formal assessment.  It is this concept that leads on the idea that teachers do not necessarily care whether or not the students are comprehending the material.  This, above all else, puts students at a disadvantage when it comes to being able to articulate what it is that they are learning in school.  "Any situation in which some individuals prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence.  The means used are not important..."(Freire 114).  A prime example of this is when parents ask their children what they did at school that day.  Many people would say that it is a rebellious child that says "nothing", but what if they actually don't have the faintest idea until they cram for the test the night before.  Personally I find nothing that is influential about the banking concept of education.  By this I mean that students have nothing to take away from this style of teaching other than being able to obtain knowledge through 5 hour-cramming sessions, if you consider that a skill.  A classroom is made for both  student and a teacher to learn and feed off of each others' ideas.