The New York Times Called Are College Lectures Unfair? By Annie Murphy Paul

The New York Times Article

The article featured by the New York Times called Are College Lectures Unfair? by Annie Murphy Paul is a about the inequality of lecturing in college classrooms. The article talks about how women, minorities, low-income and first generation families have a disadvantage in a lecture setting because they cannot connect with the material as well as others. The article talks about the lecture style classroom and the active learning style. The lecture is as it sounds the teacher talks for hours on end, boring the students half to sleep. Whereas the active learning style which has more structure and teacher-student connection. Overall the article talks about the disadvantages of lecture style classes and it would be in

student’s best interest to change to a more interactive style of teaching.
Reading this article I found many connections to Paulo Freire’s The Banking Concept of Education. In Freire’s article he spoke about how teachers talk at students instead of allowing the students to ask questions when he says “Education thus becomes an act of depositing.” He also spoke about how students do not challenge their professors and this causes a standstill in learning. Some of the points Freire makes are similar to Paul’s remarks, such as when Paul speaks about active learning. Paul speaks about active learning allows interaction between the student and teacher, Freire spoke of a very similar idea.
I believe that lecture classes are less efficient than hands-on courses. I personally find I do better in a course when I have homework and am pushed to keep learning. Lecture classes give students freedom to listen but most of the time the student will not absorb all the information needed to do well on tests. I agree when Paul spoke about students not being able to absorb unfamiliar material as well as others, because when I learn about a new topic it is hard for me to relate to unfamiliar ideas. Overall, I found that both Freire and Paul’s ideas on education are very similar and should be implicated in classrooms.