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Mia Stevens

Dr. Smith

English 101 Argumentative essay

October 25, 2017

Why Students and Schools Fail?

Education is known for being a process of receiving or giving systematic instructions at a

school. Which means students come to a school to basically sit and hear a teacher speak on

information they do not know and automatically believe they are being educated. This is known

as being The Banking System where all students are taught the same just by listening to the

person with the degree and not to the ones around them. This is what makes students and schools

fail because not everyone understands the same but will act as if they do because theyre

listening to a teacher. This theory is supported by David Glenn New Book lays failure to learn

on colleges doorsteps. It supports that the banking system is one of the primary reasons schools

and students fail. One way we can help critical thinking is by abandoning the banking system

and changing the education learning system with encouraging students to participate in

discussions while instructors give them the power to express their own opinions.

Paulo Freire discusses two different concepts of education The banking and

Liberation. In the banking concept it states, that instead of communicating the teacher issues

communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize and repeat.

which means students dont really break down and talk about what theyre being taught. They

just listen and take in the knowledge they do not know over and over again. The system doesnt

really teach students information for them to master it and understand the true meaning of what

they just learned. In order for a student to become a critical thinker the teacher should let them
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come up with a solution to what they were just taught on their own to truly see if they

understand. Also In the banking concept of education, knowledge is gifted bestowed by those

who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing.

Projecting on absolute ignorance onto others. The knowledgeable would be known to be the

teacher and the students are known as the ones who know nothing and believe this is the best

way for a student to be educated because this is the system that was made to be taught by. This

concept shows that only the teachers are superior and know everything while a student is

learning based off memorization and notes.

In the Liberation concept Paulo expresses how a teacher and a student have the same

power as one another. The Liberation system is giving the student the ability to really be the

teacher and participate with their own ideas of what they are being taught in class. It states one

cannot impose oneself, nor even merely co-exist with one students. Solidarity requires true

communication, and the concept by which such an educator is guided fears and proscribes

communication. Communication takes a big role in learning and once a teacher starts with a

student it would be more understandable to the student so they can help one another comprehend

more. The teacher cannot think her for student, nor can she impose her thought on them. So

allowing the student-teacher and teacher-student contradiction would give the student the power

to be more involved in the discussions and they would have their own control of their

education.The teacher is no longer merely the one who teaches, but one who is himself taught

in dialogue with the student, who in turn while being taught also teach. They become jointly

responsible for a process in which all grow. The teacher can learn from the student and it can

be seen in different views. Some students see and understand things differently from one another
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so if they speak on the topic with their own creative power maybe they will understand

something in multiple ways.

In David Glenn article there was a study in University of Virginia. During the years 2005,

2007 and 2009, the freshman and seniors of the four year colleges were made to take a CLA.

There were no significant changes in their scores for reasoning and writing skills. What

concerns us is not just the levels of students performance but that students reported that they

make such meager investment in studying and demands placed on them in their courses with

reading and writing. They are being limited to the information that should be helping them.

Which is seen to be just like the banking system. One element of the book that draws criticism

that score gain on the CLA, if the students said they did most of their studying with friends as

opposed to alone. That insight cut against the grain of the recent trends toward collaborative and

experiential learning. Which is like liberation education, where students collaborate with one

another and their teacher. So they can fully understand the knowledge theyre being taught. Mr.

Arum and Ms. Roksa believe such projects of collaborative assignments can be very effective

but not a lot of faculty members were train to design effective collaborations.

Even till this day in 2017 The banking system is how we the students are being educated

from first grade to college. We dont really get to do work together or take control of the class.

We are more of being robots and the teacher is programing us because we write down the same

notes, memorize the information, and repeat daily. Instead of having a full on discussion on what

is being taught. Teacher have to understand that not everyone comprehends the same so

information should be broken down and asked about. They should be pushing the student to

wanting to know and learn more on their own because, if a teacher has a child of their own the

first thing they ask is what you learned today? Or if they didnt understand something fully
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theyll help them and break it down and have discussions.Every student should be asked their

opinion on the subject. We have to start working on abandoning the banking system concept of

education and working on a Liberation concept itll help students more on understanding the

information. More college rates of graduating students would become higher than they currently

are and have more successful students in life and getting their career jobs than just a regular job.