Banking Education

If you haven’t read “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, by Paolo Freire, I highly recommend it! Freire describes “Banking Education”, as a relationship between teacher and student that is a one way road; students are empty accounts “to be filled by the teacher”.

In general, I think our current education system reflects this “Banking Education” and the concept of “banking education” helps the ruling class maintain their power. Although, I recognize that Canadian society has far less disparity than Brazil, where Freire was an educator, the concept remains the same.

In the spirit of our current political turmoil, I read an insightful blog entry that argues for the importance of fostering civic literacy:

“Education is about passion. It's about loving yourself, your friends, your community, your country, your planet and even your enemies enough to share that passion with others. Civic education is about being passionate about your life here on this planet. Becoming involved with others is required of any democratic form of government. If you are not involved then the system begins to break down. Because you choose not to be engaged then someone else disengages or does not engage, then that spreads until a small number of those involved are making decisions for the majority of people in the country.”

I found this blog on a website titled, “The Paulo and Nita Freire Project for Critical Pedagogy” . --- Go to: http://freire.mcgill.ca/ This website has some really interesting videos, and information on wide range of topics, which can help us shape our lessons in a meaningful way.