Category: Weekly Responses

In today’s discussion group we talked about the Banking Concept of education. Specifically, the statement of the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing. We discussed how teachers act as if students no nothing, because it’s the easiest way for them to teach. For example, it is much simpler for a teacher to lecture a group of students then to actually engage with them in conversation about the material. Due to this, some students are not retaining or absorbing any information, and instead just writing everything they hear. The students may be able to memorize the information, but they aren’t thinking about its true meaning. The group also commented on how the article describes a society where students are forced to suppress their creativity because they only participate in their teachers’ way of learning. With the Banking Concept of Education, students are simply repeating and memorizing a teacher’s words, and aren’t actually learning new information. 

Olivia Vearling led this discussion and the group members present were Mikayla Medycki, David Macnullen, Jeff Biancaniello, Maura Kelly, Gwen Jordan, Shamus Corkery, Cait Mangeni, Laura Mcgroary, Sam Zicorno, Amanda Regan, and myself. 

Today in the writing discussion about Paulo Freire’s “The Banking Concept of Education“, we discussed how each of us personally felt about Freire’s opinion on the education system. Olivia Vearling led this discussion and David Macmullen, Jeff Biancaniello, Maura Kelly, Makayla Medycki, Sam Zicorno, Cait Mangini, Laura McGroary, Seamus Corkery, Haley Clark, Amanda Regan, and I followed on September 5, 2019.

A point that was brought up was that teachers should make sure students are understanding what is being taught. A student should not be seen as a listening object. The reason the teachers are there is because the students make it possible for them to be. The teachers should care about what they are teaching, and it should not just be a narration. Narration is lifeless and adds to the process of memorization. The education system reminded everyone of a suppressed society and the teachers just force students to abide by their way of teaching. The teacher does not care about how the students need to learn. In this ‘banking’ education style, teachers only care about doing what is easiest and just lecturing to get it over with rather than actually caring if the students are gaining information.

olivia vearling, sam livorno, makayla medycki, David Macnullen, Maura Kelly, Gwen Jordan, seamus corkery, Laura Mgroary, Haley Clark

At this discussion we talked about how students are basically just robots that are taught to memorize and retain information, while teachers barely put in any effort. Someone mentioned how it was kind of like a suppressed society, where none of the students could really show their creativity or express it in any way, since the teacher basically just lectures and does nothing else. The teacher doesn’t take time to make sure the kids understand, they just talk and make the students retain information. In my opinion, some kids are not good at memorization, so they may be labeled as “bad students”, however they just can’t memorize that well. We also talked about how teachers should try different teaching styles so they can figure out what works best for their specific class or specific student. If they put in the effort and really care about their students, the students are absolutely going to do well. But when some teachers just don’t care and lecture, then they can’t guarantee their students will succeed.

By Seamus Corkery

Discussion Group Names- Olivia Vearling, Jeff Biancaniello, David Macmullen, Sam Livornl, Amanda Regan, Gwen Jordan, Maura Kelly, Caitlin Mangini, Laura Mcgroary, and Hailey Clark.

Our group discussed how teachers force students to abide by their teachings versus being able to learn on their own to have their own understanding of different topics. This was one of many topics from Paulo Freire’s “The Banking Concept of Education.” The title for our group discussion was “the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing.” The thing is that this agenda can sometimes be true depending on what is being taught in the specific class. For example, in a very hard subject matter such as physics or maybe calculous, the students may need to be treated as if they know nothing due to them actually not knowing anything about the subject. The agenda that the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing can be proven wrong when you begin to discuss more broad subject matters that provide better learning experiences when you discuss the subject with your students and they able to give their own input as to how they feel about the topic. I feel that students learn best when they are in an environment where they can give their own input and maybe even help another student out versus the teacher being the only one allowed to speak and the students must listen and act as spectators.