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The “Banking” Concept of Education
As a high school student in my native country Trinidad, I had a math class that was a perfect example of the “banking” concept of education, as described by Freire. The class had approximately thirty students. Unless each student was mathematicians or our brains had a built in calculator, I dont understand how we were expected to solve math problems or learn anything in the class.
Each math period the teacher would have the students open their book to a chapter. The teacher would complete one problem on the board the teacher would then sit and have the students work on the rest of the math problems in the chapter. When the period was over the teacher would tell the class to do the rest of the chapter for home work and when we return to class the following day we would correct the problems. “The more completely they accept the passive role imposed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the word as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them” (p. 258). If you didnt understand the teacher reply was “Ask one of your class mates for help?”
The following day of class the teacher returns to class. The students automatically opens there books to the chapter. The teacher would assign a couple of student to complete a few problems in the chapter, and have the student complete the problem on the board. When the students are completed the teacher would give the correct answer. If the period is not over the next assignment is followed by the next chapter. Whether you understand the last chapter or you dont understand the chapter the teacher moves onto the next chapter. “Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students” (p. 257).
During the semester, we didnt