English Paper on Paulo Freire and His Philosophy on Education

Despite we having used the same educational system for at least a century, if not more, Paulo Freire suggests that our current system is not effective at all. In fact, Freire suggests that our current educational system is not just useless, "Worse yet, it turns them (the students) into "containers," into "receptacles" to be "filled" by the teachers" (somewhere near beginning), but also molds people to fit neatly into society. As a receptacle or a container that is just filled by teachers, this education system "minimize or annul the student's creative power and to stimulate their credulity serves the interests of the oppressors" (after the list of stuff in first half), which limits the creativity and transcendence of both the students and teachers. In recent years however, teachers have tried new methods of teaching that increases creativity and thinking instead of just memorizing and being a container for a teacher to deposit knowledge. One particular teacher that I had, Mr. Cummins, tried to break out of banking education and create problems for us to creatively think about. Among his rich teaching style, one particular presentation project stands out among his other teachings, a presentation that both breaks out of the banking education as well as unknowingly enforcing the knowledge depositing.

As a high school economics student, I had the chance to have quite the nontraditional teacher. Mr. Cummins was the type of teacher who would make fun of you and expect a retort, the teacher that would "deposit" knowledge through lecturing and then ask for his student's thoughts afterwards that would expand beyond what he told us. One particular project was our Ten Year Project and presentation, which is a semester long research project and presentation about where we would see ourselves in ten years. The future us that we were looking at included how we would be dressed, our homes and its expenses, transportation, food, entertainment, and of course, our career. This assignment included a lot of research over the internet, and we had one topic that we had to do every single week. There was really no limitation on what we could be in the future; some of my peers imagined themselves as rock stars, others normal accountants and doctors, and there was even someone who wanted to be a hermit. The future that I had in mind for myself was the owner of a multi-billion dollar business who lived the high life in a carefree manner and this project really had me thinking about how I could achieve this future and how realistic it really was.

This project truly helped me think about what kind of a life we really lived in, and also made me think about economics in a way that would not classify me as simply a container for a teacher to deposit knowledge in. The open ended nature of this project made me consider my place within the world and society. Mr. Cummins set up the project in a way where he would set us up as "Students, as they are increasingly posed with problems relating to themselves in the world and with the world, will feel increasingly challenged and obliged to respond to that challenge" (towards end); the whole project revolves around the student relating themselves to their future in the current world. There was not much knowledge deposited by the teacher to the student, instead, there was just a task that required the student to go out and relate himself to his future. Setting this project ten years in the future also forces the student to work in a non-static reality, "they come to see the world not as a static reality, but as a reality in process, in transformation" (towards end); this concept is also unfavorable to banking education. Reflection on the existence of oneself is the main basis of what Freire calls "problem-posing education", the opposite of banking education. The project requires us to reflect and be creative with ourselves and how we interact with our world, unlike banking education, which is just a transfer of knowledge from the "knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing" (near beginning).

Although the ten years project does try to embrace problem-posing education, it does unintentionally cast the student into the container role, molding him into someone who will fit right in with society. One of the reasons that Freire gives as a purpose of banking education is that it molds people, "The educated individual is the adapted person, because she or he is better 'fit" for the world" (few paragraphs after the list). The ten years project is presented in such a way as to mold us into society. Everything that we research, transportation, clothing, homes, food, entertainment, and especially our careers, are setting us up as containers. For example, a countless number of my peers had something similar to: finish high school, go to college and get a diploma, find a job, start a family and live happily ever after which Freire might interpret as successful, or "knowledge" by banking education standards, but "less human" and "oppressed" by problem-posing standards.

Unfortunately, although Mr. Cummins did try to be more of a problem-posing teacher, due to the banking education standards of an economics course, he still had to treat himself as a knowledgeable teacher depositing knowledge into us containers. Throughout the whole semester, many lectures and note-taking sessions took place in order to achieve the curriculum of a standards economics class. I am not surprised that the only memorable event in his class was the Ten Years Project, since it was the only real problem-posing question that was presented by Mr. Cummins.

Paulo Freire suggests that there are generally two types of education systems, our current and flawed banking education system, and the creative problem-posing education system. Our current banking education system is a system of "knowledgeable" teachers depositing knowledge into student containers, which dehumanizes both student and teacher. Mr. Cummins, although following banking education to fulfill his duties to the high school economics curriculum, does try to break out of banking education, and use some problem-posing education in his Ten Year Project. The Ten Years Project helped us as students relate ourselves to the world and how it will change in the future through open ended research. Through this project, Mr. Cummins' made an effort to break out of his lecturing and banking education and move into posing problems for us to relate ourselves to the world that we live in and making a step towards humanizing students and teachers.