Banking Concepts of Education

1) According to Paulo Freire, "narration sickness" is when a teacher stands in front of their class and talks to his or her students about the facts they want their students to know.  The students receive the information from the teacher, memorize it, and then repeat it back to the teacher through quizzes or tests.  The student becomes a "container" or "receptacle" that gets "filled" by the teacher.

2) Narration sickness us very prevalent today and can be found in the "No Child Left Behind Act" standardize testing.  The teachers within our country must feed their students a curriculum that has already been chosen by the government that all students must know and learn, regardless of the students ethnic background, class in society, or region within the United States.  If the students do not do well on the tests regarding the curriculum, then the school is looked upon as a failure and could be reprimanded by being put on probation.  This style of teaching and testing does not truly teach students about his or hers surroundings, it just teaches them how to memorize and do well on tests.

3) This past summer I was enrolled in a class at USF called "Modern European History."  After reading all the practices associated with the Banking Concept of Education, I see that the Professor for this class epitomized the Banking Concept.  I could relate all 10 of the practices to his teaching style.

With this being said, however, I really enjoyed the Professors class and I must say, I learned a lot from him that semester.   He filled our receptacles full with knowledge and his tests were rather difficult so we were forced to memorize and really know the facts that were presented.  It was a class I had to study hard for and because of all the many hours of hard work memorizing information for tests, I feel the information will stick with me for a long time.

4) A teacher that stands out in my mind as an excellent teacher also comes from USF.  This Professor taught "Introduction to the Bible."  He was very compassionate about his teaching and for his students as well.  He showed his compassion for his students by listening to their views and then conversing with the student about what the Bible had to say about the situation being discussed.  He never belittled or dehumanized anyone for having a different outlook on any given subject.

The Professor taught using the Banking Concept on rare occasions and typically used the problem solving method by asking specific questions about Bible passages and then holding a dialogue with the student to find out the meaning.  He would also have us break up into small groups and discuss a specific topic amongst ourselves to find out what the passage meant to us instead of him giving us the meaning.  The Professor, in my eyes, helped me learn more about the Bible than any other person I have come in contact with.

5) Based on Neil Postman's "My Graduation Speech", I feel the Athenians would have embraced the problem solving education and the Visigoths would have rejected it.  The Athenians were thinkers and actively searched for ways to improve themselves and their neighbors.  The Visigoths did not care about education or their neighbors, they only wanted to conquer and take for themselves. 

I feel all my classes at USF have included both the Banking Concept and Problem Solving Method, with the exception of my "Modern European History" class mentioned earlier which entailed the Banking Concept only.  In my mind, you must use both these concepts to succeed because a teacher needs to fill their students with some kind of information before they can start the dialogue about it.