Reflection 3: Oppression In My Education

Paulo Freire refers to current education systems as operating under the “banking method” (P. 72) in that teachers deposit information, which the students memorize and store into their bank. Students are treated as receptacles that receive information for future retrieval, but do not possess individual ideas or contribute any original information or creativity (Freire, 1970).  Freire writes of the ways that this educational method is oppressive to students and how this reinforces the oppression in society. In examining my own student life, I can find evidence of the oppression of students in the educational system that supports Freire’s theory.

            Before reading Paulo Freire’s theories of education, I had not ever considered myself as a student, a receptacle for approved information. But upon consideration of Freire’s point that education mirrors oppression in society through practices and attitudes, it has been true in my experience that to earn good grades, memorization of the approved curriculum is key. Challenging information has not been rewarded or focused upon during my school years, and challenging teachers has resulted in punishment. The attitude that the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing has been displayed throughout my life by many of the educational professionals that I have been a student of. As children, we were encouraged to ask questions when we did not understand the given material, or were having trouble learning it, but we were not encouraged to challenge it or find new ways of solving problems. For example, when I was in math class in seventh grade learning multiplication, my teacher was showing the class how to do multiplication out by hand, and asking students to answer questions on the board and show their work. My mother had taught me a different way of working out multiplication problems than the method the teacher was teaching, and so when it was my turn, I completed the question the way my mother had taught me. Even though I had arrived at the correct answer, my question was marked wrong because I did not “show my work” completely and in the correct way. I realize that this reinforces Freire’s point that “the teacher teaches and the students are taught” (p.73), “the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing” (p.73), and “the teacher chooses and enforces his choice, and the students comply” (p.73). These practices and attitudes serve to discourage individualism and inquiry, oppressing students. I realize that my teacher likely did not know how to use my method of multiplication, and did not accept that a student may be able to teach her something in return, or that a method other than her own may have been superior, instead of considering that my method may have been helpful to the other students learning the skill of multiplication. In the end, I was forced conform and learn the “correct way” to perform multiplication, in order to succeed and receive good grades for my work.

            Although I agree with Freire that education has served as a form of oppression in many ways within my education, I have found that in university, it is less obvious and strictly controlled than in grade school. I have found my professors to be more open to comments and student experiences. As a university student, I have not felt like professors feel as though I am completely void of knowledge coming into their classes. It seems as though professors expect that I will have already have experience with the material and I find the material is related to my life and connection to my life is encouraged more so than in grade school. Though content still has a heavy memorizing content, focus is on application and understanding of concepts, and most importantly, analyzing. I have had professors who have made their classes more interactive in regards to discussion and content, where the students choose the topics and/or lead the discussions. This critical reflection serves itself to cause me (the student) to examine the information, challenge it, connect it, and consider new ideas. It is possible that we are progressing farther away from the banking method of education, or that grade school is designed differently than university.

            I believe, as Freire does, that questions and creativity are essential to progress, and that education should embrace these qualities in students instead of deterring them. It has been my experience that being encouraged to think critically about what I am learning has allowed me to possess more knowledge and grow more as a person than the regurgitating of facts determined valuable by the education system. I regarded grade school as being oppressive to my growth as a student, while university I have found to be a freeing experience where teachers value my opinion and encourage personal and educational growth. When I am finished with the education system, it is the qualities such as creative thinking and critical analysis that I was taught to express that will most determine my success, not the tiny pieces of information that I rehearsed over and over to perform satisfactorily on exams.

References

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder.