9:30 Rhetorical Situation, Main Ideas, Quotations

HIST

Paulo Freire
Bibliographic Entry:
Freire, Paulo. The Banking Concept of Education. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York:
Continuum Books, 1993. 71-80. Reprint (first print 1970).

RHETORICAL SITUATION FOR FREIRE:

Communicator: What do we know about him and his purpose?

We know that the communicator is from Brazil and was banished and put into jail for
writing against the system of education.
Freires purpose was to change and point out the flaws in the education system in hope
to bring light to an alternative, problem posing education.
To remove the banking system.
Freire was a portuguese teacher who wrote Pedagogy of the Oppressed. His purpose is
to explain the flaws of the education system and how students were being taught by
teachers. He argues to treat the learners as a creator of knowledge.
He evolved a method of work with which the word conscientization has been
associated.
Freire was imprisoned following the 1964 coup detat for what the new regime
considered to be subversive elements in his teaching. He next appeared in exile in Chile
where his method was used and the UN School of Political Sciences held seminars on
his work.
-He grew up in the Northeast of Brazil where his experiences deeply influenced his life
work (link)

Text: What is the main idea he wants to communicate? What is the genre? (what kind of
text is it?) What is the medium (How, where was it published?) When was it published?
His main idea that he wants to communicate is that the Banking concept of Education
is highly inefficient and that we should promote a different teaching style.
This text is an excerpt from the book Pedagogy of the Oppressed on academic
discourse.
It was published in New York, 1993.
Main idea: wants student to become active learners and actually understand the
information theyre learning about, instead of just being able to copy down and recite it.
Genre: academic discourse
Medium: Idea found in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Originally published in Portuguese in 1968, published in English in 1970
- Education makes students less creative because they cant think for themselves
9:30 Rhetorical Situation, Main Ideas, Quotations

- Students are not learning the true meaning and value of words, they are simply
memorizing facts
- The education system has an oppressor vs oppressed attitude between teachers and
students.
- the why behind the information is not given
- Teachers feeding the information to the students, and not letting them to grow on their
own

Audience: Who is his intended audience? What do they expect from the text because of
who he is and because of the conventions of the genre and medium?

- People who work in education, community development, and students

- Since Freire has been fighting for the methods of teaching, against the banking of education,
readers expect that he would be talking against the concept of banking and how that could
make students better learners and more creative.

Historical Context: What was happening in history at the time when he wrote? How might
that history have impacted his message, or what his audience expected?

1993 - The Massachusetts Education Reform Act requires a common curriculum and statewide tests
(Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System). As has often been the case, other states follow
Massachusetts' lead and implement similar, high-stakes testing programs. (http://www.eds-
resources.com/educationhistorytimeline.html#1900)

Cultural Context: What culture or subcultures could we place Holt and his text within?
How does his text grow out of or reflect the ideas and values of his culture?
Advocating education and going against the systems of power found in the education system.
9:30 Rhetorical Situation, Main Ideas, Quotations

IMPORTANT IDEAS FROM FREIRE:

Education is remembering and repeating rather than being much more
Students and teachers have to form a different relationship with each other.
Teachings must be uplifted not oppressed for student education.
You need to understand what you are learning because the Banking System is
not effective.
The Banking System affects the education of the majority of people throughout
the world which affects their ability to truly learn the material and dehumanizes
them.
Education has become this system known as The Banking Effect in which its
not effective and should be changed.
The Banking concept does not allow us to be creative so we have to seek other
resources
The Banking concept can reflect who you are as an individual.

QUOTES FROM FREIRE:

Identify excerpts that help represent some of the most important ideas. After typing in
the quote, follow it with a brief summary of the important idea it is expressing.

The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the
critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of
that world. (pg 73. #9)
-
- Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the
depositories and the teacher is the depositor (72)
-
- The more completely she fills the receptacles, the better a teachers she is. The more
meekly the receptacles permit themselves to be filled, the better students they are.
- Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories
and the teacher is the depositor (72).
-
- The truth is, however, that the oppressed are not "marginals," are not living "outside"
society. They have always been "inside" the structure which made them "beings for
others." The solution is not to 'integrate" them into the structure of oppression, but to
transform that structure so that they can become "beings for themselves." (74)
-
- People that don't fall in line with what oppressors are advocating are looked at as
an oddity, not unique people that can add more to the conversation and
education as a whole. Oppressors view a mentality that differs from their own as
a danger to the reality they have constructed to benefit themselves. Outliers are
ostracized in order to keep their system safe from change.
9:30 Rhetorical Situation, Main Ideas, Quotations

IDEAS IN FREIRE THAT CROSS OVER WITH HOLT AND/OR

MCINTOSH

-Education can be used to uplift or oppress

Teacher is the oppressor, students are the oppressed: white teachers had predisposed
beliefs about Black American students and were prejudice against them
-The oppressors objectify those who are viewed as inferior
-Knowledge is power the way knowledge is being learned is an important factor
-Systemic Oppression banking system of education/white privilege isnt taught but has
become habitual
-what kind of knowledge is power passive education = submissive education