In his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire compares education with a “banking” model where teachers are responsible for depositing knowledge into the empty vessels that are the students. Freire argues that because knowledge is viewed, by those who give it, as a gift it serves to further separate teachers and students and thus the oppressors from the oppressed. The oppressive nature of this education system discourages students from being creative and self-thinkers which helps the oppressors keep the status quo. A better education model, Freire argues, is one where teachers engage students in critical thinking and “the quest for mutual humanization.” Students in a “problem-posing method” are more likely to be able to view challenges as interrelated to other problems and not just as theoretical exercises. This leads to students who are more committed to their learning.
In my opinion, Freire’s arguments make sense, but only when you remove them what I see as the core argument in his book. Education is not the cause of oppression. Oppression can manifest itself in education but only if poorly trained and uninterested teachers allow it to happen. Plus, the actions of a poor teacher can be felt by all students, not just those who are oppressed or marginalized by society. Even the worst teachers I’ve seen aren’t actively trying to teach in a way that oppresses their students. I think that in order to claim that teachers are oppressing their students Freire needs to cite more concrete examples. (Examples, that in my mind would lead to the termination of a specific teacher, not a educational revolution.)
Learning is a skill and takes time to acquire and hone. Simply blaming poor education results on the teachers and institutions is, what I believe, the biggest problem facing American education today. As Freire points out, education should be a collaborative, joint journey between the teachers and the students. Said another way, and against what I think Freire argues, the students are just as responsible for their education as the teacher; and to place all the blame on the teachers fails to consider the entire narrative. The pedagogy of the oppressed (and un-oppressed) needs to focus on great teaching – that puts the subject in the center of a discussion between teachers and students – but also needs to find ways of teaching the importance of education to students (and adults) at an early age. (Most) everyone wants an education, just not everyone wants to work for it; and in education sometimes the oppressed are themselves the oppressors.