Pedagogy of the Oppressed

I think this document really stresses the importance of education beyond the school grounds. It helps us realize that our attempts to educate children are more than simply trying to stuff them with information (what Freire calls “Banking Education”) and is about trying to raise the next generation of critically thinking adults. What I find somewhat difficult about this concept, however, is how one is supposed to have a “problem-posing” classroom when many times the best means of giving information for the students to discuss is to lecture about such a subject. Ultimately, I think it comes down to giving them the basic framework that they need in order to discuss a topic or idea intelligently and then seeking an understanding of that topic or idea through thorough discussion where, instead of focusing on your aspect as teacher, or even facilitator, you focus on your role as a fellow student of ideas and problems. All that we as teachers must do is present the problem to be discussed and perhaps a minimal amount of background knowledge in order for students to access that information.

While the language used in this article is rather thick, it is fairly obvious why it has stood as such a valuable commentary on the necessity of today’s education to be something more than just pouring a load of facts into a passive brain that will ultimately forget everything by the end of the semester. I think that fostering an environment that focuses on the ability of students to play a completely active and integral role in their own education is an accomplishable feat, though it certainly will require a concentrated and careful effort on our part as teachers to ensure that how we are teaching is not oppressing our students’ ability to function in a real world where information and reality are constantly and consistently in flux, and where what may be true of a topic today may not prove true of that same topic tomorrow.