Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate

integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system
and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means
by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and
discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.

Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

The banking model appears to me like a definition of not just bad teaching,
but the worst possible teaching. At the same time, it seems to me that at this
point, and perhaps even when this was written, the banking model is both a
brilliant summary of the worst of education.The teacher is the Subject of
learning; the students are only objects of learning. Teachers and others in
powerful positions project ignorance onto others, a quality of oppression, and
negate education and the process of inquiry as a means of demonstrating
knowledge.

This banking concept is the reflection of the dichotomous oppressive

society we live in: the teacher knows everything and the students know
nothing, the teacher thinks and the students are being thought, the teacher
talks and the students listen obediently.

While this very worst version does exist, and perhaps parts of it exist in
almost every school, and in these versions it is a soul-crushing, anti-
democratic, anti-revolutionary, dehumanizing experience, there are many
better educational situations , and many educational systems both private
and public that strive to blend some of the content crowding with more
dialectical models, but these better versions are not sufficiently revolutionary
and dialectic to lead to liberation.

In addition, when people and their own thoughts and intelligence are not
considered in educational processes, they are alienated as human beings,
void of decision-making and transformed them into objects.

He confirms this point by delineating the conflict of these two educational

concepts. Banking education considers students objects in need of
intervention whereas problem-posing makes students critical thinkers.
Banking education conceals certain facts that may describe how humans are
in the world, while problem-posing education illuminates the realities of
humanity. Banking education is a one-sided discussion imparted to students
whereas problem-posting utilizes dialogue to encourage thinking on the part
of all participants. In totality, banking theory and practicefail to
acknowledge men and women as historical beings; problem-posing theory
and practice take the peoples historicity as their starting point. Through
problem-posing educational practices, the world of the oppressed becomes
the point of transforming action by the oppressed that results in their
humanization.

As an illustratioin, as an educator I agree with the problem-posing model of

education since I use this method in my class. I find this strategy very useful
on the part of the students most especially when when I am asking them to
share their insights and point of views on certain issuei;insigthing the pros
and the cons on a particular topic. In this manner, the students can freely
express themselves sice this involve direct experices on the part of the
student. They can contribute on the discussion since they themselves have
witnessed it.

Through this model that students were freed from alienation, deprivation and
dehumanization of the teacher/oppresor.