What is the Purpose of Education?
Education is a topic surrounded by a great deal of debate. It is something that is constantly under scrutiny by politicians, authorities, philosophers, and individuals. Almost everyone has an opinion about the educational system they are familiar with. There is constant discuss as to whether education works and what its true purpose is. This essay discusses the views expressed in a series of articles written to challenge the purpose of education.
Martin Luther King Jr’s article’s main point was to show that education should lead to better independent thought. It should help us to better question, study, and research topics before forming our own opinion of it. Education was not designed to spoon-feed the masses an interpretation or decided truth.
Students should strive to utilize education in order to better perceive the world. It can allow people to accept a more open-minded way of thinking and living. This, in turn, will help to better understand an individual’s place in the world.
Education should not be used as a tool to place one’s self above others. Having a college education does not make someone have more value than a person who hasn’t acquired the same amount of education.
The saying “knowledge is power” should be changed to “knowledge is responsibility”. Those with an education should use the knowledge gained to contribute to humanity. Everyone on this planet has a voice, but the educated ones have more ability to have their voices heard. Education should be used to shape society into a better one for the days ahead, not to place certain people above the rest. It certainly should not be used to convince people that there is only one truth. (King)
Martin Luther King believed education should never be used as a status symbol. David Foster Wallace thought education should be used in order to expand the view of the world.
David Foster Wallace gave the commencement speech at Kenyon University in 2005. This commencement address was not a standard speech. He begins with a story of some fish who see their world beneath the water very differently. One fish knows he is in water, while the others do not even know what water is. It is an interesting concept that invokes the idea of seeing our world more intellectually.
Wallace challenged the new graduates to try and think differently than they had been taught. He says that education should facilitate the skill of thinking more abstractly about any given situation or topic; to view the world from all angles and not a narrow minded view point. Education should not be used to dictate how people should think about things. It should broaden and expand the mind in a way that allows for independent thought.
Most people, in general, use the thinking that the universe revolves around them. All the people they interact with are there to serve their needs in some way. This is a natural thought process for the human race. There is a sense of ownership that comes with this way of thinking. Everything is ours, or theirs, or his. It places a line that separates us from other people. Though it is natural to think this way, it is an auto state of being.
This state of being causes individuals to deal with daily routines in a way that is consumed by negative thoughts or feelings. Many may believe that people or circumstances are deliberately making the mundane tasks of life more challenging because the belief that the whole world revolves around them. Time should be taken to stop and consider what the people around might be experiencing. They may be just as frustrated with the events interrupting their routines as well.
David Foster Wallace brings up how people worship various things. For some it is religion, for others it is a lack of religion. He also explains the dangers of worshipping certain ideals. Wealth and power only cause the feeling of failure or dissatisfaction in one’s self. Worshipping a certain body image lowers self-esteem. These beliefs do not help those who believe in them to strive to be a better part of the world. They only destroy the mind.
He discusses the idea that beliefs dictate how one might see certain situations. An atheist will believe that there is no way prayer can help to better a situation. It is themselves or, at times, other people who facilitate a better or favorable outcome. For the religious person, they will pray avidly until their desired outcome is achieved. They tend to view whatever or whoever provided this outcome as a miracle sent for a higher purpose.
This address seems to be inviting individuals to strive towards an intellectual awakening from the automatic state of mind. David Foster Wallace asks that people allow themselves to live before they die, both physically and mentally. Taking the time to consider the people around helps to shape a new way of thinking and builds a connection to the world outside of the mind.
This new thought process does not come easily. It takes a conscious effort to start thinking this way. It is something that needs to be practiced daily throughout life. Only then can one truly say that they are enlightened. Only then can people start to believe in the new way they think.
Wallace’s philosophy is live before you die, use your head, consider all the angles, worship in a way that allows you to better help the world, and think about someone other than yourself from time to time. All these concepts are things we should do in order to better see the world. (Wallace 1-10)
Though David Foster Wallace saw education as a good thing for the most part, a tool to broaden thinking, Ken Robinson’s article points out a way in which the educational system is flawed. Robinson wrote about education in association to learning and mental disorders. He poses the question of whether the rising diagnosis of ADHD is really an epidemic. The rise in the amount of children being diagnosed with ADHD seems to increase as more and more distractions are infused into their lives. Television, video games, and other technological devices are providing greater distractive opportunities. Children may be overwhelmed by all the distractions. Some may just be able to process through everything in their environment quickly.
Then children are expected to sit in a classroom for a given amount of time where there is very little stimulation. Educators demand that they sit in their seats quietly and listen or focus on the lesson the teacher is presenting. This gives many children very little substance which leads to boredom, frustration, and poor grades. It isn’t that they don’t understand the material, it is just that it does not hold their interest.
Robinson also talks about the current educational system being more like a factory. Students are viewed as a product to be manufactured and spit out into the community. Individuality is ignored and students are lumped together based on their age, as though the only thing that separates people is the year they were born. This causes children to struggle with understanding the things they are learning in the classroom. (Robinson 1-3) Robinson points out one of the things that is wrong with education today, but he didn’t offer any solution.
Rabinranath Tagore developed an educational concept that offers a possible alternative to the broken system in our schools. Swati Lal wrote an article outlining the educational ideals of Rabinranath Tagore. In the article she discusses that Tagore developed an idea that focused on blending traditional education methods with those of a more aesthetic nature. This provides students with the knowledge and understanding of a broader education. Thus creating more cultured, intellectual, and well-rounded adults.
Rabinranath Tagore spent his life studying both Western and Eastern learning modules. He published countless works of literature. He was also a painter, philosopher, and intellect. His teachings spanned India, Asia, and the world. He dedicated years of his life to improving the way education is approached. He believed that a rounded approach that focused on all areas of learning would provide a better outcome than by observing traditional learning structures that focus on the core subjects while ignoring others.
Tagore compared the structured education ideals to a bird in an elaborately designed cage. The bird was forced to learn within the cage without ever being given a chance to spread its wings. This caused the bird to wither away into an empty shell, incapable of functioning on its own.
Tagore realized a need to break free from the cage of traditional learning. He developed an educational model which used all aspects of learning. He understood the importance of personal meditation and reflection during the learning process. Instead of four walls, desks, and a chalk board; he established a school where students were allowed to learn outside in nature. He helped them cultivate skills beyond the core learning requirements of most educational systems.
Students at Tagore’s school spent their days focusing on all areas of learning. The core areas of mathematics, literature, sciences, geography, history, and English were taught in the morning. These classes usually incorporated teaching of other skills such as botany. The instructors found a way to tie the skill in with teaching the core concepts of the class. The afternoon classes focused on learning the arts. All of the students participated in festivals showcasing their various talents. The excitement surrounding these events allowed vitality to surge through the entire school.
Many students learning in a traditional education setting struggle to understand the concept being taught to them. This is often due to the strict lesson models, the pacing of the course, and the student’s own abilities and strengths. Tagore’s school allowed students the ability to learn as they chose. The pace of the class was different for each student as their knowledge dictated to them on an individual level.
Tagore’s ideas for combining aesthetic learning and traditional learning are seen by some as revolutionary. Many individuals around the world are trying to adopt his ideas into educational systems. This type of learning may be seen as some to be radical, liberal, and ineffective. However, the success of the students who attended Tagore’s school cannot be contested.
The article implies that currently education in America is seeing a downward turn. So much emphasis is being placed on standardized testing, that whether the student actually understands the practical application of learned concepts is being overlooked entirely. As educators work to change and improve the system in this country, perhaps they look to Tagore’s ideas as a model for how the educational system should be shaped. Allowing the students to grow in their own way, outside of a structured school. Thus allowing future generations to grow into healthy well educated adults. (Lal 1-10)
Swati Lal presented Tagore’s idea in a way that sounds like a highly successful alternative to traditional education, however the school Tagore established has changed over the years. It has lost some of Tagore’s original practices. Paulo Freire offered a completely different solution to the problems littering the educational system.
“The Banking Concept” written by Paulo Freire raises some thought provoking questions. The educational system is something that is constantly under scrutiny. Nearly everyone has an opinion about it whether positive or negative. Freire argues that the educational system is oppressive to individuality and unique thinking. It seeks to confine humanity into a mechanized, standardized thinking unit. Any deviation from this is sought out and removed.
So often education is propelled by the narrative of those teaching the principles or concepts. Students are viewed as unintelligent beings who need to be shown or taught the principles. This is done by a teacher, who believes they know the concept entirely. Their only job is to engrain their ideals or interpretation of the subject matter into the minds of those learning under them. Very little focus is spent ensuring students understand the association to their own lives or to the world. They are simply expected to retain the knowledge they receive, catalog it, and repeat it when necessary.
Freire’s idea of Banking Education explains that teachers act as a depositor imparting knowledge to their students. The students are simply receivers of that knowledge. They are an empty container meant to be filled with information. The more information that fills this container, the better the system works. There is little to no return on that knowledge, nor is it imparted to others, except to perpetuate the act of banking information. Students are seen as objects, there only to serve as memory banks for all the teacher has to instruct on a particular subject.
This act of banking information without explaining its relevance, or showing the reality behind the knowledge causes society to become a standardized collection of thought. It shapes how people see the world. So often different is considered bad or dangerous. So many people strive to remain in the box that society and their own minds have forced them into. This oppresses the very human desire to express itself through art or intellect. People become passive in their own minds, rejecting the very thoughts they have if that thought deviates from what they have been pushed to believe about themselves or the world.
Banking information leads to the dehumanizing of cultures and societies. It forces everyone to adopt the same ideals. It demands complete assimilation into the desired state of being. Individuality is sacrificed for the sake of maintaining order. It holds the suppressed under the authority of those deciding what information to deposit into the education banks of the mind.
There is a need to break free from the practice of banking information, but that liberation must be done carefully. There is always some risk that in attempting to liberate the mind from its learned habit of banking knowledge, one will, in turn, just bank a new set of knowledge justifying the behavior. Banking information causes an alienation between the teacher and the student. This occurs when the knowledge being passed on is not presented in a way that resonates with the recipient.
A person with an individual perspective is considered a danger to those who wish to maintain control over the societies in which they rule. They force their own views of the world into the minds of those they control by packaging it in the form of educational truth.
Banking education seeks to cut off the natural instinct to think and reflect on the world. It seeks to maintain a sense of authority. This authority cannot remain if problem posing education is being utilized. Dehumanization is the desired outcome of this teaching method. It forces everyone to accept that they are simply objects used for a means of receiving pre-determined information and conveying that information in turn.
Freire discusses the idea of problem posing education. This process presents knowledge in a way that helps students understand the practical applications of that knowledge in their version of the world. It can help them to better relate to what is being taught. The knowledge is no longer owned by any particular person. It’s no longer is the teacher’s job to fill their student’s mind with whatever the educational outline dictates.
To avoid banking education, an open line of communication must be established between the teacher and the student. These two roles must exist in a symbiotic relationship allowing both sides to grow and flourish in their own individuality.
Problem posing education removes the assumed roles of students and teachers. Every person involved in the learning experience inhabit both roles simultaneously. It also allows for the expression of individuality. This learning process encourages thoughts that may challenge the concepts being presented. Students may understand the material in a way that differs from how the teacher may see it. These different opinions can be discussed, considered, and then accepted or rejected based on internal thinking.
This way of learning is impossible without an open dialog involving all participants. It allows for the expression of thoughts or opinions in a more open-minded situation. This open dialog seeks to avoid oppression while promoting expression. It is our nature to interpret the world around us. The information gathered gets filtered through the ideals, morals, or beliefs developed throughout life. This information is judged for how it is perceived. If the new information is accepted, it gets filed away with the rest of the things the mind has discovered about the world.
The world is also a fluid entity that can be altered by even the slightest change in ideals. One’s perception of the world is not a fixed perception. People can change the world as they see it simply by realizing a new truth, or thinking on it in another way. Perhaps an ideal presented by another individual can even alter perceptions or beliefs. The world cannot exist without a conscious awareness of that world. The conscious needs a world to perceive, interact with, and process or it will cease to be. Both of things are necessary in order to become fully human.
Both the banking model and the problem posing method can be translated into the world in general. They are both a reflection of how society functions. This is more obviously seen in the case of the banking method. This is used to hold people in a certain mentality decided upon by some type of authority. That authority seeks to maintain control. The best way to control a person is to decide what and how that person learns, understands, and perceives knowledge given to them. Problem posing thought removes the need for authority. It acknowledges that everyone is a leader and a follower when it comes to education. Open discussion of the subject matter allows for the individual to take various opinions and consider them before choosing to accept any particular one.
Freire presented a very interesting argument. Everyone should seek out the truth that is so often removed from the information being taught. If people accept a “banked” truth without hesitation, then perhaps that is when a need to examine the truth arises. The mind should consider it more in depth before integrating it into consciousness. This is a way to break free from the oppression imposed by banking education. (Freire 1-12)
Many experts and intellects seem to agree that the educational system is broken, but no one really seems to be offering a solution to any of the issues discussed in these articles. Lal and Freire offered some creative solutions for how to address the problems within educations. However, the solutions offered are difficult to integrate into the structure already established as a society. It would take years before the effectiveness of these solutions could actually be seen. There is a current movement towards charter and progressive schools which are attempting to integrate a more individualized approach to education, placing the student above a standardized teaching module. This allows for more opportunities to develop independent thought. One thing is certain, students will continue to suffer from closed thought if the methods of educating do not change in order to allow for broad, independent thought.
Freire, Paulo. "The "Banking" Concept of Education." n.d. nyu.edu. 22 Oct. 2014. <https://files.nyu.edu/mr185/public/www/book%20contents/chapter_4_final/freire_banking_concept.pdf>.
King, Martin Luther. "The Purpose of Education." 1947. dr.martinlutherkingjr.com. Loveearth Network. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. <http://www.drmartinlutherkingjr.com/thepurposeofeducation.htm>.
Lal, Swati. "Rabindranãth Tagore's Ideals Of Aesthetic Education." Journal Of Aesthetic Education
18.(1984): 31-39. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Ronbinson, Ken. "RSAnimate: Changing Education Paradigms." 16 June 2008. sauvonslarecherche.fr. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Wallace, David Foster. "Transcription of the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address." 21 May 2005. Purdue.edu. 22 Oct. 2014. <http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~drkelly/DFWKenyonAddress2005.pdf>
Education is a topic surrounded by a great deal of debate. It is something that is constantly under scrutiny by politicians, authorities, philosophers, and individuals. Almost everyone has an opinion about the educational system they are familiar with. There is constant discuss as to whether education works and what its true purpose is. This essay discusses the views expressed in a series of articles written to challenge the purpose of education.
Martin Luther King Jr’s article’s main point was to show that education should lead to better independent thought. It should help us to better question, study, and research topics before forming our own opinion of it. Education was not designed to spoon-feed the masses an interpretation or decided truth.
Students should strive to utilize education in order to better perceive the world. It can allow people to accept a more open-minded way of thinking and living. This, in turn, will help to better understand an individual’s place in the world.
Education should not be used as a tool to place one’s self above others. Having a college education does not make someone have more value than a person who hasn’t acquired the same amount of education.
The saying “knowledge is power” should be changed to “knowledge is responsibility”. Those with an education should use the knowledge gained to contribute to humanity. Everyone on this planet has a voice, but the educated ones have more ability to have their voices heard. Education should be used to shape society into a better one for the days ahead, not to place certain people above the rest. It certainly should not be used to convince people that there is only one truth. (King)
Martin Luther King believed education should never be used as a status symbol. David Foster Wallace thought education should be used in order to expand the view of the world.
David Foster Wallace gave the commencement speech at Kenyon University in 2005. This commencement address was not a standard speech. He begins with a story of some fish who see their world beneath the water very differently. One fish knows he is in water, while the others do not even know what water is. It is an interesting concept that invokes the idea of seeing our world more intellectually.
Wallace challenged the new graduates to try and think differently than they had been taught. He says that education should facilitate the skill of thinking more abstractly about any given situation or topic; to view the world from all angles and not a narrow minded view point. Education should not be used to dictate how people should think about things. It should broaden and expand the mind in a way that allows for independent thought.
Most people, in general, use the thinking that the universe revolves around them. All the people they interact with are there to serve their needs in some way. This is a natural thought process for the human race. There is a sense of ownership that comes with this way of thinking. Everything is ours, or theirs, or his. It places a line that separates us from other people. Though it is natural to think this way, it is an auto state of being.
This state of being causes individuals to deal with daily routines in a way that is consumed by negative thoughts or feelings. Many may believe that people or circumstances are deliberately making the mundane tasks of life more challenging because the belief that the whole world revolves around them. Time should be taken to stop and consider what the people around might be experiencing. They may be just as frustrated with the events interrupting their routines as well.
David Foster Wallace brings up how people worship various things. For some it is religion, for others it is a lack of religion. He also explains the dangers of worshipping certain ideals. Wealth and power only cause the feeling of failure or dissatisfaction in one’s self. Worshipping a certain body image lowers self-esteem. These beliefs do not help those who believe in them to strive to be a better part of the world. They only destroy the mind.
He discusses the idea that beliefs dictate how one might see certain situations. An atheist will believe that there is no way prayer can help to better a situation. It is themselves or, at times, other people who facilitate a better or favorable outcome. For the religious person, they will pray avidly until their desired outcome is achieved. They tend to view whatever or whoever provided this outcome as a miracle sent for a higher purpose.
This address seems to be inviting individuals to strive towards an intellectual awakening from the automatic state of mind. David Foster Wallace asks that people allow themselves to live before they die, both physically and mentally. Taking the time to consider the people around helps to shape a new way of thinking and builds a connection to the world outside of the mind.
This new thought process does not come easily. It takes a conscious effort to start thinking this way. It is something that needs to be practiced daily throughout life. Only then can one truly say that they are enlightened. Only then can people start to believe in the new way they think.
Wallace’s philosophy is live before you die, use your head, consider all the angles, worship in a way that allows you to better help the world, and think about someone other than yourself from time to time. All these concepts are things we should do in order to better see the world. (Wallace 1-10)
Though David Foster Wallace saw education as a good thing for the most part, a tool to broaden thinking, Ken Robinson’s article points out a way in which the educational system is flawed. Robinson wrote about education in association to learning and mental disorders. He poses the question of whether the rising diagnosis of ADHD is really an epidemic. The rise in the amount of children being diagnosed with ADHD seems to increase as more and more distractions are infused into their lives. Television, video games, and other technological devices are providing greater distractive opportunities. Children may be overwhelmed by all the distractions. Some may just be able to process through everything in their environment quickly.
Then children are expected to sit in a classroom for a given amount of time where there is very little stimulation. Educators demand that they sit in their seats quietly and listen or focus on the lesson the teacher is presenting. This gives many children very little substance which leads to boredom, frustration, and poor grades. It isn’t that they don’t understand the material, it is just that it does not hold their interest.
Robinson also talks about the current educational system being more like a factory. Students are viewed as a product to be manufactured and spit out into the community. Individuality is ignored and students are lumped together based on their age, as though the only thing that separates people is the year they were born. This causes children to struggle with understanding the things they are learning in the classroom. (Robinson 1-3) Robinson points out one of the things that is wrong with education today, but he didn’t offer any solution.
Rabinranath Tagore developed an educational concept that offers a possible alternative to the broken system in our schools. Swati Lal wrote an article outlining the educational ideals of Rabinranath Tagore. In the article she discusses that Tagore developed an idea that focused on blending traditional education methods with those of a more aesthetic nature. This provides students with the knowledge and understanding of a broader education. Thus creating more cultured, intellectual, and well-rounded adults.
Rabinranath Tagore spent his life studying both Western and Eastern learning modules. He published countless works of literature. He was also a painter, philosopher, and intellect. His teachings spanned India, Asia, and the world. He dedicated years of his life to improving the way education is approached. He believed that a rounded approach that focused on all areas of learning would provide a better outcome than by observing traditional learning structures that focus on the core subjects while ignoring others.
Tagore compared the structured education ideals to a bird in an elaborately designed cage. The bird was forced to learn within the cage without ever being given a chance to spread its wings. This caused the bird to wither away into an empty shell, incapable of functioning on its own.
Tagore realized a need to break free from the cage of traditional learning. He developed an educational model which used all aspects of learning. He understood the importance of personal meditation and reflection during the learning process. Instead of four walls, desks, and a chalk board; he established a school where students were allowed to learn outside in nature. He helped them cultivate skills beyond the core learning requirements of most educational systems.
Students at Tagore’s school spent their days focusing on all areas of learning. The core areas of mathematics, literature, sciences, geography, history, and English were taught in the morning. These classes usually incorporated teaching of other skills such as botany. The instructors found a way to tie the skill in with teaching the core concepts of the class. The afternoon classes focused on learning the arts. All of the students participated in festivals showcasing their various talents. The excitement surrounding these events allowed vitality to surge through the entire school.
Many students learning in a traditional education setting struggle to understand the concept being taught to them. This is often due to the strict lesson models, the pacing of the course, and the student’s own abilities and strengths. Tagore’s school allowed students the ability to learn as they chose. The pace of the class was different for each student as their knowledge dictated to them on an individual level.
Tagore’s ideas for combining aesthetic learning and traditional learning are seen by some as revolutionary. Many individuals around the world are trying to adopt his ideas into educational systems. This type of learning may be seen as some to be radical, liberal, and ineffective. However, the success of the students who attended Tagore’s school cannot be contested.
The article implies that currently education in America is seeing a downward turn. So much emphasis is being placed on standardized testing, that whether the student actually understands the practical application of learned concepts is being overlooked entirely. As educators work to change and improve the system in this country, perhaps they look to Tagore’s ideas as a model for how the educational system should be shaped. Allowing the students to grow in their own way, outside of a structured school. Thus allowing future generations to grow into healthy well educated adults. (Lal 1-10)
Swati Lal presented Tagore’s idea in a way that sounds like a highly successful alternative to traditional education, however the school Tagore established has changed over the years. It has lost some of Tagore’s original practices. Paulo Freire offered a completely different solution to the problems littering the educational system.
“The Banking Concept” written by Paulo Freire raises some thought provoking questions. The educational system is something that is constantly under scrutiny. Nearly everyone has an opinion about it whether positive or negative. Freire argues that the educational system is oppressive to individuality and unique thinking. It seeks to confine humanity into a mechanized, standardized thinking unit. Any deviation from this is sought out and removed.
So often education is propelled by the narrative of those teaching the principles or concepts. Students are viewed as unintelligent beings who need to be shown or taught the principles. This is done by a teacher, who believes they know the concept entirely. Their only job is to engrain their ideals or interpretation of the subject matter into the minds of those learning under them. Very little focus is spent ensuring students understand the association to their own lives or to the world. They are simply expected to retain the knowledge they receive, catalog it, and repeat it when necessary.
Freire’s idea of Banking Education explains that teachers act as a depositor imparting knowledge to their students. The students are simply receivers of that knowledge. They are an empty container meant to be filled with information. The more information that fills this container, the better the system works. There is little to no return on that knowledge, nor is it imparted to others, except to perpetuate the act of banking information. Students are seen as objects, there only to serve as memory banks for all the teacher has to instruct on a particular subject.
This act of banking information without explaining its relevance, or showing the reality behind the knowledge causes society to become a standardized collection of thought. It shapes how people see the world. So often different is considered bad or dangerous. So many people strive to remain in the box that society and their own minds have forced them into. This oppresses the very human desire to express itself through art or intellect. People become passive in their own minds, rejecting the very thoughts they have if that thought deviates from what they have been pushed to believe about themselves or the world.
Banking information leads to the dehumanizing of cultures and societies. It forces everyone to adopt the same ideals. It demands complete assimilation into the desired state of being. Individuality is sacrificed for the sake of maintaining order. It holds the suppressed under the authority of those deciding what information to deposit into the education banks of the mind.
There is a need to break free from the practice of banking information, but that liberation must be done carefully. There is always some risk that in attempting to liberate the mind from its learned habit of banking knowledge, one will, in turn, just bank a new set of knowledge justifying the behavior. Banking information causes an alienation between the teacher and the student. This occurs when the knowledge being passed on is not presented in a way that resonates with the recipient.
A person with an individual perspective is considered a danger to those who wish to maintain control over the societies in which they rule. They force their own views of the world into the minds of those they control by packaging it in the form of educational truth.
Banking education seeks to cut off the natural instinct to think and reflect on the world. It seeks to maintain a sense of authority. This authority cannot remain if problem posing education is being utilized. Dehumanization is the desired outcome of this teaching method. It forces everyone to accept that they are simply objects used for a means of receiving pre-determined information and conveying that information in turn.
Freire discusses the idea of problem posing education. This process presents knowledge in a way that helps students understand the practical applications of that knowledge in their version of the world. It can help them to better relate to what is being taught. The knowledge is no longer owned by any particular person. It’s no longer is the teacher’s job to fill their student’s mind with whatever the educational outline dictates.
To avoid banking education, an open line of communication must be established between the teacher and the student. These two roles must exist in a symbiotic relationship allowing both sides to grow and flourish in their own individuality.
Problem posing education removes the assumed roles of students and teachers. Every person involved in the learning experience inhabit both roles simultaneously. It also allows for the expression of individuality. This learning process encourages thoughts that may challenge the concepts being presented. Students may understand the material in a way that differs from how the teacher may see it. These different opinions can be discussed, considered, and then accepted or rejected based on internal thinking.
This way of learning is impossible without an open dialog involving all participants. It allows for the expression of thoughts or opinions in a more open-minded situation. This open dialog seeks to avoid oppression while promoting expression. It is our nature to interpret the world around us. The information gathered gets filtered through the ideals, morals, or beliefs developed throughout life. This information is judged for how it is perceived. If the new information is accepted, it gets filed away with the rest of the things the mind has discovered about the world.
The world is also a fluid entity that can be altered by even the slightest change in ideals. One’s perception of the world is not a fixed perception. People can change the world as they see it simply by realizing a new truth, or thinking on it in another way. Perhaps an ideal presented by another individual can even alter perceptions or beliefs. The world cannot exist without a conscious awareness of that world. The conscious needs a world to perceive, interact with, and process or it will cease to be. Both of things are necessary in order to become fully human.
Both the banking model and the problem posing method can be translated into the world in general. They are both a reflection of how society functions. This is more obviously seen in the case of the banking method. This is used to hold people in a certain mentality decided upon by some type of authority. That authority seeks to maintain control. The best way to control a person is to decide what and how that person learns, understands, and perceives knowledge given to them. Problem posing thought removes the need for authority. It acknowledges that everyone is a leader and a follower when it comes to education. Open discussion of the subject matter allows for the individual to take various opinions and consider them before choosing to accept any particular one.
Freire presented a very interesting argument. Everyone should seek out the truth that is so often removed from the information being taught. If people accept a “banked” truth without hesitation, then perhaps that is when a need to examine the truth arises. The mind should consider it more in depth before integrating it into consciousness. This is a way to break free from the oppression imposed by banking education. (Freire 1-12)
Many experts and intellects seem to agree that the educational system is broken, but no one really seems to be offering a solution to any of the issues discussed in these articles. Lal and Freire offered some creative solutions for how to address the problems within educations. However, the solutions offered are difficult to integrate into the structure already established as a society. It would take years before the effectiveness of these solutions could actually be seen. There is a current movement towards charter and progressive schools which are attempting to integrate a more individualized approach to education, placing the student above a standardized teaching module. This allows for more opportunities to develop independent thought. One thing is certain, students will continue to suffer from closed thought if the methods of educating do not change in order to allow for broad, independent thought.
Freire, Paulo. "The "Banking" Concept of Education." n.d. nyu.edu. 22 Oct. 2014. <https://files.nyu.edu/mr185/public/www/book%20contents/chapter_4_final/freire_banking_concept.pdf>.
King, Martin Luther. "The Purpose of Education." 1947. dr.martinlutherkingjr.com. Loveearth Network. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. <http://www.drmartinlutherkingjr.com/thepurposeofeducation.htm>.
Lal, Swati. "Rabindranãth Tagore's Ideals Of Aesthetic Education." Journal Of Aesthetic Education
18.(1984): 31-39. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Ronbinson, Ken. "RSAnimate: Changing Education Paradigms." 16 June 2008. sauvonslarecherche.fr. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Wallace, David Foster. "Transcription of the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address." 21 May 2005. Purdue.edu. 22 Oct. 2014. <http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~drkelly/DFWKenyonAddress2005.pdf>
Martin Luther King Jr’s article’s main point was to show that education should lead to better independent thought. It should help us to better question, study, and research topics before forming our own opinion of it. Education was not designed to spoon-feed the masses an interpretation or decided truth.
Students should strive to utilize education in order to better perceive the world. It can allow people to accept a more open-minded way of thinking and living. This, in turn, will help to better understand an individual’s place in the world.
Education should not be used as a tool to place one’s self above others. Having a college education does not make someone have more value than a person who hasn’t acquired the same amount of education.
The saying “knowledge is power” should be changed to “knowledge is responsibility”. Those with an education should use the knowledge gained to contribute to humanity. Everyone on this planet has a voice, but the educated ones have more ability to have their voices heard. Education should be used to shape society into a better one for the days ahead, not to place certain people above the rest. It certainly should not be used to convince people that there is only one truth. (King)
Martin Luther King believed education should never be used as a status symbol. David Foster Wallace thought education should be used in order to expand the view of the world.
David Foster Wallace gave the commencement speech at Kenyon University in 2005. This commencement address was not a standard speech. He begins with a story of some fish who see their world beneath the water very differently. One fish knows he is in water, while the others do not even know what water is. It is an interesting concept that invokes the idea of seeing our world more intellectually.
Wallace challenged the new graduates to try and think differently than they had been taught. He says that education should facilitate the skill of thinking more abstractly about any given situation or topic; to view the world from all angles and not a narrow minded view point. Education should not be used to dictate how people should think about things. It should broaden and expand the mind in a way that allows for independent thought.
Most people, in general, use the thinking that the universe revolves around them. All the people they interact with are there to serve their needs in some way. This is a natural thought process for the human race. There is a sense of ownership that comes with this way of thinking. Everything is ours, or theirs, or his. It places a line that separates us from other people. Though it is natural to think this way, it is an auto state of being.
This state of being causes individuals to deal with daily routines in a way that is consumed by negative thoughts or feelings. Many may believe that people or circumstances are deliberately making the mundane tasks of life more challenging because the belief that the whole world revolves around them. Time should be taken to stop and consider what the people around might be experiencing. They may be just as frustrated with the events interrupting their routines as well.
David Foster Wallace brings up how people worship various things. For some it is religion, for others it is a lack of religion. He also explains the dangers of worshipping certain ideals. Wealth and power only cause the feeling of failure or dissatisfaction in one’s self. Worshipping a certain body image lowers self-esteem. These beliefs do not help those who believe in them to strive to be a better part of the world. They only destroy the mind.
He discusses the idea that beliefs dictate how one might see certain situations. An atheist will believe that there is no way prayer can help to better a situation. It is themselves or, at times, other people who facilitate a better or favorable outcome. For the religious person, they will pray avidly until their desired outcome is achieved. They tend to view whatever or whoever provided this outcome as a miracle sent for a higher purpose.
This address seems to be inviting individuals to strive towards an intellectual awakening from the automatic state of mind. David Foster Wallace asks that people allow themselves to live before they die, both physically and mentally. Taking the time to consider the people around helps to shape a new way of thinking and builds a connection to the world outside of the mind.
This new thought process does not come easily. It takes a conscious effort to start thinking this way. It is something that needs to be practiced daily throughout life. Only then can one truly say that they are enlightened. Only then can people start to believe in the new way they think.
Wallace’s philosophy is live before you die, use your head, consider all the angles, worship in a way that allows you to better help the world, and think about someone other than yourself from time to time. All these concepts are things we should do in order to better see the world. (Wallace 1-10)
Though David Foster Wallace saw education as a good thing for the most part, a tool to broaden thinking, Ken Robinson’s article points out a way in which the educational system is flawed. Robinson wrote about education in association to learning and mental disorders. He poses the question of whether the rising diagnosis of ADHD is really an epidemic. The rise in the amount of children being diagnosed with ADHD seems to increase as more and more distractions are infused into their lives. Television, video games, and other technological devices are providing greater distractive opportunities. Children may be overwhelmed by all the distractions. Some may just be able to process through everything in their environment quickly.
Then children are expected to sit in a classroom for a given amount of time where there is very little stimulation. Educators demand that they sit in their seats quietly and listen or focus on the lesson the teacher is presenting. This gives many children very little substance which leads to boredom, frustration, and poor grades. It isn’t that they don’t understand the material, it is just that it does not hold their interest.
Robinson also talks about the current educational system being more like a factory. Students are viewed as a product to be manufactured and spit out into the community. Individuality is ignored and students are lumped together based on their age, as though the only thing that separates people is the year they were born. This causes children to struggle with understanding the things they are learning in the classroom. (Robinson 1-3) Robinson points out one of the things that is wrong with education today, but he didn’t offer any solution.
Rabinranath Tagore developed an educational concept that offers a possible alternative to the broken system in our schools. Swati Lal wrote an article outlining the educational ideals of Rabinranath Tagore. In the article she discusses that Tagore developed an idea that focused on blending traditional education methods with those of a more aesthetic nature. This provides students with the knowledge and understanding of a broader education. Thus creating more cultured, intellectual, and well-rounded adults.
Rabinranath Tagore spent his life studying both Western and Eastern learning modules. He published countless works of literature. He was also a painter, philosopher, and intellect. His teachings spanned India, Asia, and the world. He dedicated years of his life to improving the way education is approached. He believed that a rounded approach that focused on all areas of learning would provide a better outcome than by observing traditional learning structures that focus on the core subjects while ignoring others.
Tagore compared the structured education ideals to a bird in an elaborately designed cage. The bird was forced to learn within the cage without ever being given a chance to spread its wings. This caused the bird to wither away into an empty shell, incapable of functioning on its own.
Tagore realized a need to break free from the cage of traditional learning. He developed an educational model which used all aspects of learning. He understood the importance of personal meditation and reflection during the learning process. Instead of four walls, desks, and a chalk board; he established a school where students were allowed to learn outside in nature. He helped them cultivate skills beyond the core learning requirements of most educational systems.
Students at Tagore’s school spent their days focusing on all areas of learning. The core areas of mathematics, literature, sciences, geography, history, and English were taught in the morning. These classes usually incorporated teaching of other skills such as botany. The instructors found a way to tie the skill in with teaching the core concepts of the class. The afternoon classes focused on learning the arts. All of the students participated in festivals showcasing their various talents. The excitement surrounding these events allowed vitality to surge through the entire school.
Many students learning in a traditional education setting struggle to understand the concept being taught to them. This is often due to the strict lesson models, the pacing of the course, and the student’s own abilities and strengths. Tagore’s school allowed students the ability to learn as they chose. The pace of the class was different for each student as their knowledge dictated to them on an individual level.
Tagore’s ideas for combining aesthetic learning and traditional learning are seen by some as revolutionary. Many individuals around the world are trying to adopt his ideas into educational systems. This type of learning may be seen as some to be radical, liberal, and ineffective. However, the success of the students who attended Tagore’s school cannot be contested.
The article implies that currently education in America is seeing a downward turn. So much emphasis is being placed on standardized testing, that whether the student actually understands the practical application of learned concepts is being overlooked entirely. As educators work to change and improve the system in this country, perhaps they look to Tagore’s ideas as a model for how the educational system should be shaped. Allowing the students to grow in their own way, outside of a structured school. Thus allowing future generations to grow into healthy well educated adults. (Lal 1-10)
Swati Lal presented Tagore’s idea in a way that sounds like a highly successful alternative to traditional education, however the school Tagore established has changed over the years. It has lost some of Tagore’s original practices. Paulo Freire offered a completely different solution to the problems littering the educational system.
“The Banking Concept” written by Paulo Freire raises some thought provoking questions. The educational system is something that is constantly under scrutiny. Nearly everyone has an opinion about it whether positive or negative. Freire argues that the educational system is oppressive to individuality and unique thinking. It seeks to confine humanity into a mechanized, standardized thinking unit. Any deviation from this is sought out and removed.
So often education is propelled by the narrative of those teaching the principles or concepts. Students are viewed as unintelligent beings who need to be shown or taught the principles. This is done by a teacher, who believes they know the concept entirely. Their only job is to engrain their ideals or interpretation of the subject matter into the minds of those learning under them. Very little focus is spent ensuring students understand the association to their own lives or to the world. They are simply expected to retain the knowledge they receive, catalog it, and repeat it when necessary.
Freire’s idea of Banking Education explains that teachers act as a depositor imparting knowledge to their students. The students are simply receivers of that knowledge. They are an empty container meant to be filled with information. The more information that fills this container, the better the system works. There is little to no return on that knowledge, nor is it imparted to others, except to perpetuate the act of banking information. Students are seen as objects, there only to serve as memory banks for all the teacher has to instruct on a particular subject.
This act of banking information without explaining its relevance, or showing the reality behind the knowledge causes society to become a standardized collection of thought. It shapes how people see the world. So often different is considered bad or dangerous. So many people strive to remain in the box that society and their own minds have forced them into. This oppresses the very human desire to express itself through art or intellect. People become passive in their own minds, rejecting the very thoughts they have if that thought deviates from what they have been pushed to believe about themselves or the world.
Banking information leads to the dehumanizing of cultures and societies. It forces everyone to adopt the same ideals. It demands complete assimilation into the desired state of being. Individuality is sacrificed for the sake of maintaining order. It holds the suppressed under the authority of those deciding what information to deposit into the education banks of the mind.
There is a need to break free from the practice of banking information, but that liberation must be done carefully. There is always some risk that in attempting to liberate the mind from its learned habit of banking knowledge, one will, in turn, just bank a new set of knowledge justifying the behavior. Banking information causes an alienation between the teacher and the student. This occurs when the knowledge being passed on is not presented in a way that resonates with the recipient.
A person with an individual perspective is considered a danger to those who wish to maintain control over the societies in which they rule. They force their own views of the world into the minds of those they control by packaging it in the form of educational truth.
Banking education seeks to cut off the natural instinct to think and reflect on the world. It seeks to maintain a sense of authority. This authority cannot remain if problem posing education is being utilized. Dehumanization is the desired outcome of this teaching method. It forces everyone to accept that they are simply objects used for a means of receiving pre-determined information and conveying that information in turn.
Freire discusses the idea of problem posing education. This process presents knowledge in a way that helps students understand the practical applications of that knowledge in their version of the world. It can help them to better relate to what is being taught. The knowledge is no longer owned by any particular person. It’s no longer is the teacher’s job to fill their student’s mind with whatever the educational outline dictates.
To avoid banking education, an open line of communication must be established between the teacher and the student. These two roles must exist in a symbiotic relationship allowing both sides to grow and flourish in their own individuality.
Problem posing education removes the assumed roles of students and teachers. Every person involved in the learning experience inhabit both roles simultaneously. It also allows for the expression of individuality. This learning process encourages thoughts that may challenge the concepts being presented. Students may understand the material in a way that differs from how the teacher may see it. These different opinions can be discussed, considered, and then accepted or rejected based on internal thinking.
This way of learning is impossible without an open dialog involving all participants. It allows for the expression of thoughts or opinions in a more open-minded situation. This open dialog seeks to avoid oppression while promoting expression. It is our nature to interpret the world around us. The information gathered gets filtered through the ideals, morals, or beliefs developed throughout life. This information is judged for how it is perceived. If the new information is accepted, it gets filed away with the rest of the things the mind has discovered about the world.
The world is also a fluid entity that can be altered by even the slightest change in ideals. One’s perception of the world is not a fixed perception. People can change the world as they see it simply by realizing a new truth, or thinking on it in another way. Perhaps an ideal presented by another individual can even alter perceptions or beliefs. The world cannot exist without a conscious awareness of that world. The conscious needs a world to perceive, interact with, and process or it will cease to be. Both of things are necessary in order to become fully human.
Both the banking model and the problem posing method can be translated into the world in general. They are both a reflection of how society functions. This is more obviously seen in the case of the banking method. This is used to hold people in a certain mentality decided upon by some type of authority. That authority seeks to maintain control. The best way to control a person is to decide what and how that person learns, understands, and perceives knowledge given to them. Problem posing thought removes the need for authority. It acknowledges that everyone is a leader and a follower when it comes to education. Open discussion of the subject matter allows for the individual to take various opinions and consider them before choosing to accept any particular one.
Freire presented a very interesting argument. Everyone should seek out the truth that is so often removed from the information being taught. If people accept a “banked” truth without hesitation, then perhaps that is when a need to examine the truth arises. The mind should consider it more in depth before integrating it into consciousness. This is a way to break free from the oppression imposed by banking education. (Freire 1-12)
Many experts and intellects seem to agree that the educational system is broken, but no one really seems to be offering a solution to any of the issues discussed in these articles. Lal and Freire offered some creative solutions for how to address the problems within educations. However, the solutions offered are difficult to integrate into the structure already established as a society. It would take years before the effectiveness of these solutions could actually be seen. There is a current movement towards charter and progressive schools which are attempting to integrate a more individualized approach to education, placing the student above a standardized teaching module. This allows for more opportunities to develop independent thought. One thing is certain, students will continue to suffer from closed thought if the methods of educating do not change in order to allow for broad, independent thought.
Freire, Paulo. "The "Banking" Concept of Education." n.d. nyu.edu. 22 Oct. 2014. <https://files.nyu.edu/mr185/public/www/book%20contents/chapter_4_final/freire_banking_concept.pdf>.
King, Martin Luther. "The Purpose of Education." 1947. dr.martinlutherkingjr.com. Loveearth Network. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. <http://www.drmartinlutherkingjr.com/thepurposeofeducation.htm>.
Lal, Swati. "Rabindranãth Tagore's Ideals Of Aesthetic Education." Journal Of Aesthetic Education
18.(1984): 31-39. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Ronbinson, Ken. "RSAnimate: Changing Education Paradigms." 16 June 2008. sauvonslarecherche.fr. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Wallace, David Foster. "Transcription of the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address." 21 May 2005. Purdue.edu. 22 Oct. 2014. <http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~drkelly/DFWKenyonAddress2005.pdf>
Education is a topic surrounded by a great deal of debate. It is something that is constantly under scrutiny by politicians, authorities, philosophers, and individuals. Almost everyone has an opinion about the educational system they are familiar with. There is constant discuss as to whether education works and what its true purpose is. This essay discusses the views expressed in a series of articles written to challenge the purpose of education.
Martin Luther King Jr’s article’s main point was to show that education should lead to better independent thought. It should help us to better question, study, and research topics before forming our own opinion of it. Education was not designed to spoon-feed the masses an interpretation or decided truth.
Students should strive to utilize education in order to better perceive the world. It can allow people to accept a more open-minded way of thinking and living. This, in turn, will help to better understand an individual’s place in the world.
Education should not be used as a tool to place one’s self above others. Having a college education does not make someone have more value than a person who hasn’t acquired the same amount of education.
The saying “knowledge is power” should be changed to “knowledge is responsibility”. Those with an education should use the knowledge gained to contribute to humanity. Everyone on this planet has a voice, but the educated ones have more ability to have their voices heard. Education should be used to shape society into a better one for the days ahead, not to place certain people above the rest. It certainly should not be used to convince people that there is only one truth. (King)
Martin Luther King believed education should never be used as a status symbol. David Foster Wallace thought education should be used in order to expand the view of the world.
David Foster Wallace gave the commencement speech at Kenyon University in 2005. This commencement address was not a standard speech. He begins with a story of some fish who see their world beneath the water very differently. One fish knows he is in water, while the others do not even know what water is. It is an interesting concept that invokes the idea of seeing our world more intellectually.
Wallace challenged the new graduates to try and think differently than they had been taught. He says that education should facilitate the skill of thinking more abstractly about any given situation or topic; to view the world from all angles and not a narrow minded view point. Education should not be used to dictate how people should think about things. It should broaden and expand the mind in a way that allows for independent thought.
Most people, in general, use the thinking that the universe revolves around them. All the people they interact with are there to serve their needs in some way. This is a natural thought process for the human race. There is a sense of ownership that comes with this way of thinking. Everything is ours, or theirs, or his. It places a line that separates us from other people. Though it is natural to think this way, it is an auto state of being.
This state of being causes individuals to deal with daily routines in a way that is consumed by negative thoughts or feelings. Many may believe that people or circumstances are deliberately making the mundane tasks of life more challenging because the belief that the whole world revolves around them. Time should be taken to stop and consider what the people around might be experiencing. They may be just as frustrated with the events interrupting their routines as well.
David Foster Wallace brings up how people worship various things. For some it is religion, for others it is a lack of religion. He also explains the dangers of worshipping certain ideals. Wealth and power only cause the feeling of failure or dissatisfaction in one’s self. Worshipping a certain body image lowers self-esteem. These beliefs do not help those who believe in them to strive to be a better part of the world. They only destroy the mind.
He discusses the idea that beliefs dictate how one might see certain situations. An atheist will believe that there is no way prayer can help to better a situation. It is themselves or, at times, other people who facilitate a better or favorable outcome. For the religious person, they will pray avidly until their desired outcome is achieved. They tend to view whatever or whoever provided this outcome as a miracle sent for a higher purpose.
This address seems to be inviting individuals to strive towards an intellectual awakening from the automatic state of mind. David Foster Wallace asks that people allow themselves to live before they die, both physically and mentally. Taking the time to consider the people around helps to shape a new way of thinking and builds a connection to the world outside of the mind.
This new thought process does not come easily. It takes a conscious effort to start thinking this way. It is something that needs to be practiced daily throughout life. Only then can one truly say that they are enlightened. Only then can people start to believe in the new way they think.
Wallace’s philosophy is live before you die, use your head, consider all the angles, worship in a way that allows you to better help the world, and think about someone other than yourself from time to time. All these concepts are things we should do in order to better see the world. (Wallace 1-10)
Though David Foster Wallace saw education as a good thing for the most part, a tool to broaden thinking, Ken Robinson’s article points out a way in which the educational system is flawed. Robinson wrote about education in association to learning and mental disorders. He poses the question of whether the rising diagnosis of ADHD is really an epidemic. The rise in the amount of children being diagnosed with ADHD seems to increase as more and more distractions are infused into their lives. Television, video games, and other technological devices are providing greater distractive opportunities. Children may be overwhelmed by all the distractions. Some may just be able to process through everything in their environment quickly.
Then children are expected to sit in a classroom for a given amount of time where there is very little stimulation. Educators demand that they sit in their seats quietly and listen or focus on the lesson the teacher is presenting. This gives many children very little substance which leads to boredom, frustration, and poor grades. It isn’t that they don’t understand the material, it is just that it does not hold their interest.
Robinson also talks about the current educational system being more like a factory. Students are viewed as a product to be manufactured and spit out into the community. Individuality is ignored and students are lumped together based on their age, as though the only thing that separates people is the year they were born. This causes children to struggle with understanding the things they are learning in the classroom. (Robinson 1-3) Robinson points out one of the things that is wrong with education today, but he didn’t offer any solution.
Rabinranath Tagore developed an educational concept that offers a possible alternative to the broken system in our schools. Swati Lal wrote an article outlining the educational ideals of Rabinranath Tagore. In the article she discusses that Tagore developed an idea that focused on blending traditional education methods with those of a more aesthetic nature. This provides students with the knowledge and understanding of a broader education. Thus creating more cultured, intellectual, and well-rounded adults.
Rabinranath Tagore spent his life studying both Western and Eastern learning modules. He published countless works of literature. He was also a painter, philosopher, and intellect. His teachings spanned India, Asia, and the world. He dedicated years of his life to improving the way education is approached. He believed that a rounded approach that focused on all areas of learning would provide a better outcome than by observing traditional learning structures that focus on the core subjects while ignoring others.
Tagore compared the structured education ideals to a bird in an elaborately designed cage. The bird was forced to learn within the cage without ever being given a chance to spread its wings. This caused the bird to wither away into an empty shell, incapable of functioning on its own.
Tagore realized a need to break free from the cage of traditional learning. He developed an educational model which used all aspects of learning. He understood the importance of personal meditation and reflection during the learning process. Instead of four walls, desks, and a chalk board; he established a school where students were allowed to learn outside in nature. He helped them cultivate skills beyond the core learning requirements of most educational systems.
Students at Tagore’s school spent their days focusing on all areas of learning. The core areas of mathematics, literature, sciences, geography, history, and English were taught in the morning. These classes usually incorporated teaching of other skills such as botany. The instructors found a way to tie the skill in with teaching the core concepts of the class. The afternoon classes focused on learning the arts. All of the students participated in festivals showcasing their various talents. The excitement surrounding these events allowed vitality to surge through the entire school.
Many students learning in a traditional education setting struggle to understand the concept being taught to them. This is often due to the strict lesson models, the pacing of the course, and the student’s own abilities and strengths. Tagore’s school allowed students the ability to learn as they chose. The pace of the class was different for each student as their knowledge dictated to them on an individual level.
Tagore’s ideas for combining aesthetic learning and traditional learning are seen by some as revolutionary. Many individuals around the world are trying to adopt his ideas into educational systems. This type of learning may be seen as some to be radical, liberal, and ineffective. However, the success of the students who attended Tagore’s school cannot be contested.
The article implies that currently education in America is seeing a downward turn. So much emphasis is being placed on standardized testing, that whether the student actually understands the practical application of learned concepts is being overlooked entirely. As educators work to change and improve the system in this country, perhaps they look to Tagore’s ideas as a model for how the educational system should be shaped. Allowing the students to grow in their own way, outside of a structured school. Thus allowing future generations to grow into healthy well educated adults. (Lal 1-10)
Swati Lal presented Tagore’s idea in a way that sounds like a highly successful alternative to traditional education, however the school Tagore established has changed over the years. It has lost some of Tagore’s original practices. Paulo Freire offered a completely different solution to the problems littering the educational system.
“The Banking Concept” written by Paulo Freire raises some thought provoking questions. The educational system is something that is constantly under scrutiny. Nearly everyone has an opinion about it whether positive or negative. Freire argues that the educational system is oppressive to individuality and unique thinking. It seeks to confine humanity into a mechanized, standardized thinking unit. Any deviation from this is sought out and removed.
So often education is propelled by the narrative of those teaching the principles or concepts. Students are viewed as unintelligent beings who need to be shown or taught the principles. This is done by a teacher, who believes they know the concept entirely. Their only job is to engrain their ideals or interpretation of the subject matter into the minds of those learning under them. Very little focus is spent ensuring students understand the association to their own lives or to the world. They are simply expected to retain the knowledge they receive, catalog it, and repeat it when necessary.
Freire’s idea of Banking Education explains that teachers act as a depositor imparting knowledge to their students. The students are simply receivers of that knowledge. They are an empty container meant to be filled with information. The more information that fills this container, the better the system works. There is little to no return on that knowledge, nor is it imparted to others, except to perpetuate the act of banking information. Students are seen as objects, there only to serve as memory banks for all the teacher has to instruct on a particular subject.
This act of banking information without explaining its relevance, or showing the reality behind the knowledge causes society to become a standardized collection of thought. It shapes how people see the world. So often different is considered bad or dangerous. So many people strive to remain in the box that society and their own minds have forced them into. This oppresses the very human desire to express itself through art or intellect. People become passive in their own minds, rejecting the very thoughts they have if that thought deviates from what they have been pushed to believe about themselves or the world.
Banking information leads to the dehumanizing of cultures and societies. It forces everyone to adopt the same ideals. It demands complete assimilation into the desired state of being. Individuality is sacrificed for the sake of maintaining order. It holds the suppressed under the authority of those deciding what information to deposit into the education banks of the mind.
There is a need to break free from the practice of banking information, but that liberation must be done carefully. There is always some risk that in attempting to liberate the mind from its learned habit of banking knowledge, one will, in turn, just bank a new set of knowledge justifying the behavior. Banking information causes an alienation between the teacher and the student. This occurs when the knowledge being passed on is not presented in a way that resonates with the recipient.
A person with an individual perspective is considered a danger to those who wish to maintain control over the societies in which they rule. They force their own views of the world into the minds of those they control by packaging it in the form of educational truth.
Banking education seeks to cut off the natural instinct to think and reflect on the world. It seeks to maintain a sense of authority. This authority cannot remain if problem posing education is being utilized. Dehumanization is the desired outcome of this teaching method. It forces everyone to accept that they are simply objects used for a means of receiving pre-determined information and conveying that information in turn.
Freire discusses the idea of problem posing education. This process presents knowledge in a way that helps students understand the practical applications of that knowledge in their version of the world. It can help them to better relate to what is being taught. The knowledge is no longer owned by any particular person. It’s no longer is the teacher’s job to fill their student’s mind with whatever the educational outline dictates.
To avoid banking education, an open line of communication must be established between the teacher and the student. These two roles must exist in a symbiotic relationship allowing both sides to grow and flourish in their own individuality.
Problem posing education removes the assumed roles of students and teachers. Every person involved in the learning experience inhabit both roles simultaneously. It also allows for the expression of individuality. This learning process encourages thoughts that may challenge the concepts being presented. Students may understand the material in a way that differs from how the teacher may see it. These different opinions can be discussed, considered, and then accepted or rejected based on internal thinking.
This way of learning is impossible without an open dialog involving all participants. It allows for the expression of thoughts or opinions in a more open-minded situation. This open dialog seeks to avoid oppression while promoting expression. It is our nature to interpret the world around us. The information gathered gets filtered through the ideals, morals, or beliefs developed throughout life. This information is judged for how it is perceived. If the new information is accepted, it gets filed away with the rest of the things the mind has discovered about the world.
The world is also a fluid entity that can be altered by even the slightest change in ideals. One’s perception of the world is not a fixed perception. People can change the world as they see it simply by realizing a new truth, or thinking on it in another way. Perhaps an ideal presented by another individual can even alter perceptions or beliefs. The world cannot exist without a conscious awareness of that world. The conscious needs a world to perceive, interact with, and process or it will cease to be. Both of things are necessary in order to become fully human.
Both the banking model and the problem posing method can be translated into the world in general. They are both a reflection of how society functions. This is more obviously seen in the case of the banking method. This is used to hold people in a certain mentality decided upon by some type of authority. That authority seeks to maintain control. The best way to control a person is to decide what and how that person learns, understands, and perceives knowledge given to them. Problem posing thought removes the need for authority. It acknowledges that everyone is a leader and a follower when it comes to education. Open discussion of the subject matter allows for the individual to take various opinions and consider them before choosing to accept any particular one.
Freire presented a very interesting argument. Everyone should seek out the truth that is so often removed from the information being taught. If people accept a “banked” truth without hesitation, then perhaps that is when a need to examine the truth arises. The mind should consider it more in depth before integrating it into consciousness. This is a way to break free from the oppression imposed by banking education. (Freire 1-12)
Many experts and intellects seem to agree that the educational system is broken, but no one really seems to be offering a solution to any of the issues discussed in these articles. Lal and Freire offered some creative solutions for how to address the problems within educations. However, the solutions offered are difficult to integrate into the structure already established as a society. It would take years before the effectiveness of these solutions could actually be seen. There is a current movement towards charter and progressive schools which are attempting to integrate a more individualized approach to education, placing the student above a standardized teaching module. This allows for more opportunities to develop independent thought. One thing is certain, students will continue to suffer from closed thought if the methods of educating do not change in order to allow for broad, independent thought.
Freire, Paulo. "The "Banking" Concept of Education." n.d. nyu.edu. 22 Oct. 2014. <https://files.nyu.edu/mr185/public/www/book%20contents/chapter_4_final/freire_banking_concept.pdf>.
King, Martin Luther. "The Purpose of Education." 1947. dr.martinlutherkingjr.com. Loveearth Network. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. <http://www.drmartinlutherkingjr.com/thepurposeofeducation.htm>.
Lal, Swati. "Rabindranãth Tagore's Ideals Of Aesthetic Education." Journal Of Aesthetic Education
18.(1984): 31-39. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Ronbinson, Ken. "RSAnimate: Changing Education Paradigms." 16 June 2008. sauvonslarecherche.fr. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Wallace, David Foster. "Transcription of the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address." 21 May 2005. Purdue.edu. 22 Oct. 2014. <http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~drkelly/DFWKenyonAddress2005.pdf>