Paulo Freires The Banking Concept of Education Essay -- Paulo Freire

Paulo Freire's The Banking Concept of Education In his essay â€Å"The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education†, Paulo Freire condemns the current beliefs about education, and argues strongly to support his own, new, and somewhat radical ideas about how he believes education should work. It is clear from his writing that he wishes to convey very strong feelings in this essay. At the very beginning, after a very brief description of the â€Å"current† education, he states that â€Å"education is suffering from narration sickness† (212), and later continues to say that in our current system â€Å"[words] become a hollow, alienated, and alienating verbosity† (212). These statements, especially at the very beginning of the author’s analysis, convey an amount of animosity toward the current system. This type of beginning already tells us about the author’s feeling as being of a very strong opinion about his beliefs, enough to denounce the opposing side at the start, and do so in harsh langu age. After such a commencement, the author goes on for most of the work indulging in logical proof that the current system of education is not correct, but his ideas are. He does so in numerous ways, starting with making parallel’s between the students and the oppressed races of the world, and the teachers with the tyrants who wish to annul any personal desires of the students. He demonstrates this in several logical progressions, confirming that â€Å"the capability of banking education to minimize or annul the students’ creative power ... serves the interests of the oppressors† (214). The author tries to make parallels in the readers mind, which, being human, is against all that bears the name of â€Å"evil†, â€Å"oppressor†, and the such, to get the reader to feel remorse for the c... .... Here the complex structure and the almost-paradoxical ideas of a scientist are obvious. However, the next few sentences are : â€Å"They become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow. In this process arguments based on ‘authority’ are no longer valid; in order to function, authority must be on the side of freedom, not against it† (218). In a sudden shift of style, the author engages the reader in less of complex logic, but more of slogan-based thinking, in which he starts to use words like â€Å"authority†, â€Å"freedom† and â€Å"jointly responsible†. Both styles merged create a text which seems universally attractive - as to the science-oriented logical mind, as well as to the less complex person who wishes to see catchy words to captivate his imagination. Works cited : Paulo Freire, The â€Å"Banking† Concept of Education, Ways of Reading, (Boston,1996), p.212-223.