Pedagogy of the Oppressed Number 2

In the education system we are moving from one type of teaching to a new type. The old type of teaching would be classified under the “banking concept” and the new way of teaching would be classified under the concept of growth in each person. The “banking concept” draws from the lines that each student is a vault that must be filled up. The teacher is the one giving the information to the student. The student is given no room to learn for themselves or to grow off of what they have been taught. The student is being oppressed into thinking what is called the “norm.” The students are told that what they are learning is what everyone else is doing and there for should not try to build beyond that. This way of teaching is oppression. The teacher believes that they are doing well by teaching the students the ways of the world but in reality the teachers are hurting the student’s growth.

If the student and the teacher share in the role of who is the teacher and who is the student then each will be growing. Growth means life and when each person is growing and learning then they are pushing to be free of oppression and to be who they want to be. Oppression means death and if the students do not push to become more than what they are told to be then they will stay as they are. Growth is something that should be a huge part of education. The new way of teaching allows the students to grow off of what they already know and build new foundations for later in life. This new way of education is humanistic and will allow growth in the world. The “banking concept” is trying to be pushed out of education and it takes all of us to make sure that it will stay out of education.