The mind is one of the most impressionable parts of the human body.Paolo Freire’s work in the essay “The Banking Concept of Education,” demonstrates the principal of the banking concept that is instituted in the classroom. He discusses how this concept of education impacts the intellectual abilities of the student. Richard Rodriguez’s essay Hunger of Memory symbolizes the banking concept of education within his own educational experience. Rodriguez ventures into discussing his educational experiences and choices based on how he felt he was supposed to experience education. The banking concept educational ideologies influenced Rodriguez’s educational experiences and educational choices to disrupt his mental thought processeses.
The banking concept
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educational ideologies influenced Rodriguez’s educational experiences and choices by structuring Rodriguez’s mentality on how he was supposed to exist in the educational system. Rodriguez’s educational experiences and choices were influenced by how he thought he was supposed to experience education and the choices he was supposed to make in his education. His mentality in his educational experiences and choices was molded by the fundamental principles of the banking concept that rule the education system. Rodriguez’s educational experiences and choices were heavily guided by how felt the teacher expected him to behave. He let his instructor regulate how his education was delivered living by the concept that “the teacher chooses the program content, and the students (who were not consulted) adapt to it,” (Freire 73). Rodriguez didn’t have the power to choose the education he was receiving, he instead conformed to it. By participating the education he existed in, he waived his freedom and power to be educated with his own free will. He waived his mental ability to think, choose, and feel the way he truly felt in his educational experiences and choices. Coming into the education system, Rodriguez believed that the utmost following of the teacher’s commands was the key to success in the educational system which would lead to the eventual success in life. If the teacher told Rodriguez that a certain idea was correct, than that word by the teacher would be taken as gold by Rodriguez. Rodriguez states, “ Each time I finished a book, I reported the achievement to a teacher and basked in the praise my effort earned.” (221). Rodriguez’s mentality was structured to believe that his choice to read books would be sensed as a positive action by his teacher. Therefore, he decided to read. This made him experience his education in a sense of him taking the actions that would most fulfill the desires of his educator. He lacked the ability to think for himself in the educational system and became mechanical to the educational process. The influence of the banking concept on his educational experiences and choices structured his mentality compromising his mental freedom and free will to decide for himself what would properly educate him. Rodriguez truly lost touch with his ability to think for himself. Banking concept educational ideologies influenced Rodriguez’s educational experiences and choices to be socially conformed.
Rodriguez took on various social fears because of his education. Rodriguez strives to have experiences and make choices that he believes would be socially acceptable by people like his teacher and up to social standards. Additionally, he has fears of being harshly judged for who he is and his background. Rodriguez exhibits this type of socially conscious behavior in his educational experiences and choices several times. On one occasion, Rodriguez’s parents met his teacher who he felt was a socially dignified individual unlike his immigrant worker parents. In this encounter he “Sensing that she was condescending to them, I became nervous. Resentful. Protective. I tried to move my parents away.” (Rodriguez 221). Rodriguez felt that his parents were not socially up to par to the intellectual level of his educator. This social consciousness gave him the influx of feelings that he described. In his mind, his parents were not socially adept enough to properly interact with his teacher. He thought that the teacher would judge him based on the conversation with his parents. This made him feel insecure because if his teacher’s opinion of him was downgraded in any regard, it meant for him that he had been less successful to the education that was ruled by the ideologies of the banking concept. Rodriguez abided by the principle that “In the banking concept of …show more content…
education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing.” (Freire 72). He felt that his parents had nothing to offer to the teacher therefore they were inferior to the teacher. His mental process was deterred into not valuing his background. The ideologies of the banking concept took away from Rodriguez’s freedom to appreciate what he came from. He was convinced to think that he shouldn’t be proud of who he was. The ideologies of the banking concept of education influenced Rodriguez’s educational experiences and choices to force him away from his family life. Rodriguez believed that in order for him to be successful, as defined by the ideologies of the banking concept, he had to sacrifice and distance himself from his family life. He had to do this because he was manipulated into thinking that his family did not understand the methodology of the education that he thought he should be experiencing. He believes “A primary reason for my success in the classroom was that I couldn’t forget that schooling was changing me and separating me from the life I enjoyed before becoming a student.” (Rodriguez 216) . Rodriguez didn’t want to separate himself from his family. He enjoyed the bond and connection he had with the members of his family. However, since his parents didn’t understand really education and his educational practices he believed that he had to become distant from them due to this discontinuity in thinking that they have. He thought that his parents didn’t understand the purpose behind his reading and studying. They didn’t understand his underlying goal in his opinion. He felt arrogant in a way that he was better than them since he had this belief of education. In addition, Rodriguez didn’t want to become like his parents who he thought were not socially adept as demonstrated by his social conscious. The ideologies of the banking concept influenced Rodriguez’s educational experiences and choices to reform him into a person who was disconnected from his family during the duration of his education. The banking concept ideologies also influenced Rodriguez’s educational experiences and choices by taking his freedom outside of the classroom.
Rodriguez’s life consisted of education, education, and more education. He didn’t live a diverse lifestyle consisting of various components. Most children during his age at that time would be taking part in activities that don’t always relate to school. For instance, many students participate in sports, hobbies, video games, and many other activities. The ideologies of the banking concept that influenced his choices and experiences binded him to school everyday during the duration of his education. Rodriguez seemed to be school all the time and nothing else which he recognized when “my brother saw me struggling home with stacks of library books, he would laugh, shouting: “Hey,Four Eyes!” (Rodriguez 216). This is extremely concerning for a child his age at that time. In part Rodriguez isn’t to blame. The ideologies of the banking concept once again shaped him to behave in this manner. Rodriguez didn’t have the ability to be like other students and involved in what they want to be involved in. Once he became permanently attached to the ideologies of the banking concept that influenced his experiences and choices he became cut off from a normal childhood. Freire states in reference to the banking concept of education, “They have always been “inside”- inside the structure which made them “beings for others.” (74). Normal children has his
age didn’t have the same obsession as him for education. Children at his age would be enjoying childhood along with education. Life doesn’t always need to be about school, it should also be about just enjoying life. Rodriguez was manipulated into giving up the opportunity to truly find himself and his passions. There very could have been the possibility that if there wasn’t that mentality of education which was driven inside of him, education wasn’t Rodriguez’s true passion. Rodriguez will never have that opportunity again because childhood is when children really gage on what interests them. The naive nature of the Rodriguez’s mental processing was taken advantage of by the ideologies of the banking concept of education. The banking concept educational ideologies showed to influence Rodriguez’s educational experiences and choices by disrupting his mental thought processing. The way he thought of his educational choices and experiences showed that his mind had been molded into a form that Rodriguez seemed to dislike further on in his life. Rodriguez seemed to dislike his mental being created by the ideologies of the banking concept because of how it made him feel disconnected from the true meaning and value of his life.
Valenzuela utilizes various compilations of research to construct her exceptional argument regarding the issue of subtractive schooling with regards to 2nd generational immigrant students. She thoroughly analyzes and assesses the multitude of differences between 1st generation and 2nd generation students and their affinity for education. She divides the topic into 3 categories and asserts how each one adds to the issue of inadequate education for Mexican/Mexican-American students in the US public school system. Her research is conducted at Seguin (pseudonym) High School in Houston, Texas. She examines the effects of substandard education in regards to the students and their academic performance. She uses quantitative and qualitative research
Richard Rodriguez' narrative, “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” and Carmen Tafolla's poem, “In Memory of Richi” have similar themes. In Rodriguez' narrative, he talks about his experience attending an American school. Similarly, Tafolla recites a story about a boy in an American school setting. Each story implies that students of another culture are subject to lose their cultural ties in order to fit in with the American society.
... educated so he decided to bury himself into his studies and leave his family life as an afterthought. Rodríguezes parents were always supportive of him and his academic success but he did not embrace them as he should have. Next, Rodriguez rightly points out that at his graduation ceremonies throughout life his parents would attend and someone would always say that “your parents must be proud.” and those words always registered with him. Rodriguez’s influences were his teachers during his school years. Rodriguez wanted to obtain the same knowledge that his teachers possessed so he would be able to concentrate on the benefits his education could bring him. Later he realized that he alienated himself from his parents. Rodriguez indicates the time he was in the closet reading a book and his Mother finding him was something he looked back on as one of his regrets.
Education has become stagnant. Intelligent individuals are still being molded, but the methods of education are creating individuals who lack free will. Through deep analytical understandings of education, both Walker Percy’s essay, “The Loss of the Creature,” and Paulo Freire’s essay, “The Banking Concept of Education,” have been able to unravel the issues and consequences of modern-day education. Despite creating clever people, Percy and Freire believe that the current form of education is inefficient because it strips away all sovereignty from the students and replaces it with placid respect for authorities, creating ever more complacent human beings in the long run.
Rodriguez would, for example, use words such as “unsettling” “cloistered” and “alienation,” to describe the beginning of his assimilation in the public English speaking world. While he would use “calm” “enchantingly” “consoling” and “intimacy” to describe Spanish. As Rodriguez is being pushed to assimilate and English is heard everywhere including his home he becomes “increasingly angry” only from being obliged from his parents and trying to participate in class he begins to feel a sense of belonging in public. Rodriguez’s diction was evident and continuous in his essay which abetted the audience to understand that the author wanted the audience to be addressed formally and be known that he wants to be taken seriously and able to connect to his background and why he made his
Even from an early age, Rodriguez is a successful student. Everyone is extremely proud of Rodriguez for earning awards and graduating to each subsequent level of his education. But all his success was not necessarily positive. In fact, we see that his education experience is a fairly negative one. One negative that Rodriguez endures is his solitude. Education compels him to distance himself from his family and heritage. According to Richard Hoggart, a British education theorist, this is a very natural process for a scholarship boy. Hoggart explains that the ?home and classroom are at cultural extremes,? (46). There is especially an opposition in Rodriguez?s home because his parents are poorly educated Mexicans. His home is filled with Spanish vernacular and English filled with many grammatical errors. Also, the home is filled with emotions and impetuosity, whereas the classroom lacks emotion and the teachers accentuate rational thinking and reflectiveness.
Instead of loving and caring for her baby, and forgetting about Danny, she became worse than him. Rodriguez presents many aspects of the minority class that live in the United States, specifically the South Bronx. Even though the cases presented in Rodriguez’s short stories are difficult to mellow with, they are a reality that is constant in many lives. Everyday someone goes through life suffering, due to lack of responsibility, lack of knowledge, submission to another entity or just lack of wanting to have a better life. People that go through these situations are people who have not finished studying, so they have fewer opportunities in life.
Richard Rodriguez states himself he was an “imitative and unoriginal pupil” (Rodriguez 516). He takes what he reads and goes along with it; there is no analysis or individual thought. Unlike his brother or his sister, he feels the need to prove himself. Richard Rodriguez displays a strong yearning to be different. To be special and have esteem like the teachers and professors he venerates.
As Juan mentioned in the case study, he very much regretted having to drop out of high school and he harbored significant resentment towards his father because of that. Elena also experienced her own unique difficulty as well, revealing to the social worker that as a child she was often held to adult standards while she was still very young.
Based on Freire’s essay, “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education”, there are two types of education styles. We will use these educational styles to look at how they affected Rodriguez’s relationships. The first type is referred to as a “banking” education. In this type of education, information is “deposited” into students by their teachers.
The banking concept is “ a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those who they consider to know nothing'; (Freire 213). The goal of the ‘banking’ concept is to deposit as much information into the students as possible. This results in disconnected memorization without the real understanding and discouragement of creative thought.They cannot think for themselves. As Marx writes, just as there are two types of learning, ‘banking’ and problem-posing, he explains that society is this way also. There is the upper class and subordinate classes. They both struggle for economic and political power and the primary way the upper class keeps its power is through their beliefs and values. They are allowed to think. The subordinate classes believe they are subordinate due to the upper classes prestige and way of thinking. Like Freire’s ‘banking’ concept, education is the way to keep students down and this works because the students accept all knowledge from the teacher, just like the dominant class in Marx’s ideology, keeps the subordinate classes submissive.
Education is defined as, “The act or process of educating or being educated, the knowledge or skill obtained or developed by a learning process, a program of instruction of a specified kind or level, the field of study that is concerned with the pedagogy of teaching and learning, as well as an instructive or enlightening experience” (No author). People begin their education from day one till the day they die. Every day we learn new things in different ways. Whether someone is just telling us some random fact or you are sitting in a classroom being lectured by a professor. The main focus of this classical argument involves the learning that is done in the classroom or lecture hall in the schools of America today. The question arose as to which style of teaching is most effective in sparking the minds of the receivers to make them become transformers of their education? Would the “banking concept” of teaching be more effective, where “the scope of the action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits” (pg. 260). Or would the “problem posing” style of teaching be the most effective, where by “responding to the essence of consciousness—intentionally—rejects communiqués and embodies communications. It epitomizes the special characteristic of consciousness” (pg. 265). In this essay I intend persuade you the audience to take in my experiences and the experience of two other authors, whom I will be showing you later, and take a look from my point of view.
It was almost like he was learning two languages at once. This made it a bit more difficult for him and his parents to understand what the whole schooling/ education system was. Rodriguez spent a lot of his time reading while Hoggart says, “reading is a woman’s game.” (PDF). By him saying this, he is implying that men are more likely and more accustomed to do activities outside, while women are supposed to stay inside and read. Rodriguez’s parents did not understand this whole concept because of their lack of the language. This changed Rodriguez’s life in a very big and impactful way. The education helped Rodriguez in a weird way with him saying that “ If, because of my schooling, I had grown culturally separated from my parents, my education finally had given me ways of speaking and caring about that fact.” (355). This means that he had grown distant to his parent from being involved with his parents through the whole education process. It took time away from them being together, taught him different cultures, and made him make decision in which his parents were not fond
In her travels to South America, Lawrence and her children experience the culture of South America. While her children were used to their previous standards at an American school, they noticed that guidelines were different in Peru as they “[were] not allowed to have wet hair, your top button unbuttoned, talk, or even move during class”(Bastoni). As opposed to the American class setting that allows one to talk and even in some instances have no uniform, the children did not follow these new rules and did not want to be here. Even in some other cases, the children realized that “There’s a lot more counterfeit money here” and “tried to give the lunch lady a 20 soles bill, but she said it was fake”(Bastoni). As depicted, this bad history associated with Peru along with its poor economics had led to a misunderstanding of innocuous children. These events did make the children uncomfortable, but the knowledge that they gained throughout the experience taught them a different approach to this new culture. As the children struggled to adapt to the culture of Peru, they also have to become knowledgeable in
In his argument Freire makes the readers picture different aspects of relationships between teachers, students, and humans and the world. In order to reach out to the reader emotionally, Freire emphasized how the banking concept was similar to a bank, hence the name. An analogy he used was that, “education thus has become an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor” (318). That was not the only comparison he made, Freire also compared humans to the world. He argues, “a person is merely in the world, not with the world or with others; individual is a spectator” (321). As a reader, these quotes stood out to me because of the amount of emotional emphasis Freire puts on them. The way Freire describes the banking concept made it seem as if students would have no knowledge if it were not for the teachers, but that is not the case. I agree on what he had to say about the problem-posing education: that it takes both teacher and students to learn from one another. His use of pathos was not limited to the previous comparisons, as it can also be seen through his use of diction. He continued to critique the banking concept when he signified it as a negative metaphor, “lifeless, petrified, reactionary and alienated process that places a burden on students” (323). His use of the term alienated signifies humans being isolated from their conscious relation