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Michelle Nelson

Marisa Enos

ENG 111.W03

25 April 2018

Explication - The “Banking” Concept of Education

In Paulo Freire’s “The Banking Concept of Education” he discusses what he feels is the

main problem in the educational system today. Freire argues that the teachers simply narrate

material to their students in a lifeless manner. This method of teaching is what he calls the

“banking concept”, meaning that the teachers are only depositing information to the students,

much like a person would simply deposit money into a bank. According to Freire, this method is

not beneficial to students as it merely encourages them to memorize information and repeat when

asked.

Freire’s problem with this style of teaching and learning is that there is no creativity or

critical thinking involved. Students are fed information to be retained until asked to repeat that

information on demand. He compares students to containers that are waiting to be filled by the

teacher’s knowledge. The more information the teacher is able to feed to the students, the better

the teacher must be. When these students are able to accurately repeat the information when

requested, the teacher and the student are both deemed successful. According to the author, this

banking concept of education fails to allow people to truly be human. Freire states that

“knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through restless, impatient,

continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each

other” (1). If students (or society in general) never challenge what is already known, there will
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never be advancement. There must be a continuous desire to learn and a conscious effort to

improve.

In this banking concept of education, the teachers are those who consider themselves

knowledgeable and the students are perceived as ignorant. This oppressive behavior allows the

teacher to justify their role as a powerful being. The students accept their role and fall in place as

the eager empty vessels waiting to be filled. Freire believes that the students aren’t the only

subjects that need to be learning, however. He states that the teachers should also be learning

from their students, and students therefore have a significant role as teachers as well. This is not

present in the banking style of teaching. There are many traits of the banking concept which all

contradict the sharing of student and teacher roles. Teachers do the teaching and students will be

taught. The teacher talks and the student listens. The teacher chooses, and the student complies.

The teacher chooses what material to teach, and the student, with no input on the matter, must

adapt.

According to Freire, this oppressive behavior of the banking concept of education

prohibits the development of the critical thinking and creativity that he believes makes people

human as opposed to mere objects. Students are encouraged to adapt to their passive role. If the

student is given the opportunity to question or challenge the teacher or the information, this

would undermine the oppressive role of the teacher. The easier the student adapts to their

situation, the more easily they can be dominated, which is what Freire believes is the goal of the

depository teaching.

Freire argues that the revolutionary educator should instead encourage critical thinking

and creativity. By allowing students to have an active role in their education, the student and the

teacher essentially become partners. They work together as both students and teachers,
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simultaneously, to achieve the overall goal of educating each other. No one person is more

important than the other, there is no oppression or dominance as there is in the banking concept

style of teaching and learning.

It is important, according to Freire, to reject the banking concept right from the beginning

if one is truly committed to liberation. His answer to the banking concept is what he calls

“problem-posing” education. This style of education embraces the idea that people are teaching

each other, as opposed to having an appointed teacher and a room full of students. Information

is not simply transferred from one (the teacher) to another (the student.) They work together as a

team and thrive on dialogue between themselves. The teacher can still present information to the

student, but now the student is permitted to give their input. At this point the teacher can then

reconsider their original thoughts and engage in meaningful communication. The students and

the teachers are both learning and adapting and adjusting their concepts of reality based on the

conversations in which they partake together. The banking concept would not encourage such

behavior as this would effectively undermine the dominance of the teacher and prohibit that

dominance to occur.

The banking concept and problem-posing education contradict each other entirely.

Banking education resists dialog, inhibits creativity, and denies people of their ability to become

fully human. There is a path to follow and the students are led down that path without question.

The problem-posing concept encourages dialog and creativity and allows people to be aware of

their unfinished existence. The student is allowed to create their own path. Freire believes that

“any situation in which some individuals prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry

is one of violence. The means used are not important; to alienate human beings from their own

decision-making is to change them into objects” (11). Any means of prohibiting or discouraging
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one to take an active roll in his or her education and decision-making is abusive according to

Freire. One must be involved in his or her life choices to really be living, otherwise that person

is not truly living, only sustaining life.

When faced with oppressive and dominant behavior, Freire believes it is essential to fight

for freedom. Only then will people be allowed to get past the false reality that has been

deposited into them through the banking concept. Only then will people have the ability to be

fully human, with an accurate concept of the transforming reality of the world they live in.

There is no in between, no way to partially use the banking concept while striving to achieve the

goal of the problem-posing concept. According to Paulo Freire, the two cannot exist together.
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Works Cited

Freire, Paulo. “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education”