Paulo Freire: Chapter 2 of Pedagogy of the Opressed

To put it in short, this article was hard to get through. I felt like at times, Freire was just wanting to hear himself talk in an extremely academic fashion. However, I did like how this article spoke of the banking concept which leads students to become passive. I agree with this. In high school, I had classes where I would simply memorize the information so I could pass the test. This would lead to all nighters and a build up of stress. How much of the information stuck after I took the test? Maybe one to two pieces. I would simply forget everything unless it was something we'd gone over relentlessly in class or if I could connect to it somehow. I think we as teachers need to keep this in mind when we go into the field. Students will not learn by simply giving them a study guide a week before the test and saying 'here, learn this'. That's not how it works. Students will become passive in a way. If students know this is how the tests are formatted, they may just become numb to the teaching around them. Teachers and students should have equal pull in the classroom. I wholeheartedly believe that the students' needs come first. No kid is going to learn vocabulary by memorizing 60 vocab words the night before. Freire suggests that students are simply empty vessels waiting to be filled. I do not think so. For example, if students are to write a summary, they are going to have background knowledge on how to do this. Teachers can help students along the way and guide them to show students how to write a successful summary. However, students are not empty vessels. I personally don't think that is a good way to look at kids.I feel that in today's society, kids have a lot more pull and are more active within the classroom. Kids should be engaged constantly within the classroom. I think if we go into the classroom thinking that kids are the lesser and that they are simply empty vessels, it dehumanizes them and us in a way.