Matheny 1

Kaitlin Matheny

Marisa Enos

ENG.111.W03

October 28, 2017

Size Matters

Education is not an all-expenses paid vacation. Students put a lot of time, debt, and,

hopefully, effort into achieving a higher education. Often times, those who attend universities

and even private colleges, find themselves deprived of the chance to get a one on one moment

with their professor, even in times of confusion. It is not due to the lack of availability between

professor and student, but because large sized classes and one professor only allows room for

specific cases. Students begin to wonder if the topic of education or how it is taught or if actually

retaining the information placed on them even matters. Throwing many students in a room as an

audience to one measly educationist is like forcing a size 6 woman into a size 2; it does not work.

If the size of the clothing worn matters, then why should the size of the teacher to student ratio in

the classroom not? Through the ideas of Kwame Anthony Appiah in Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in

a World of Strangers and Paulo Freire in The Banking Concept, that the reasoning behind all this

becomes clear.

Kwame Anthony Appiah, a writer of many and a native to Ashanti, Ghana, wrote

Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers, discusses his ideas behind cosmopolitanism

and globalization. Appiah is a philosophy instructor at Princeton University. He gained an

opportunity to participate in an interview with Astra Taylor, whom created a book of interviews

called Examined Life: Excursions with Contemporary Thinkers. In said interview, Appiah
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elaborates on what is behind the meanings of cosmopolitanism and globalization.

Cosmopolitanism coming from an ancient term meaning citizens of the cosmos (Appiah 20).

As Appiah states, Globalization is a word used to describe many processes. One of these is the

process that took us from being humans who lived in these bands of 100 peopleto being a

global species (21). Meaning, humans can easily grasp the concept of small face to face

interactions, but how can they handle the rest of the millions in just their country (Appiah 21).

They become responsible for more than just themselves and those close to them, they become a

representation of everyone else. Appiah claims that although humans belong to one world, and

have representation of one another, by no means does that state each and every one would like to

actually be literally the same (24). So, in the classroom, one student is expected to project the

same outcome as another, given their situations be the same, even though the two representatives

are in fact completely different. Students are often crammed into classrooms with a multitude of

other students and then taught the same exact way as everyone beside them. Knowing such

differences exist and that no two people learn the same, and that students lack the ability to have

individualized time with the instructor, is learning even taking place?

Paulo Freire was a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of

critical pedagogy. Freires term of the banking concept came from his well-known

book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The Banking Concept of Education is a captivating chapter

within that provides an in-depth analysis of teacher-student relationships Before Freire discusses

the banking concept itself or even mentions it, he gives a little background story where there is

always a narrating subject (the teacher) and listening objects (the students) (1). No matter what

the subject being narrated is, it lacks a certain meaning; it is talked about in a motionless and

divided way. The narrating objects job being to expel, or deposit so to speak, their topic of
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narration out onto their listening objects in such manner that they, the listening objects, lose

focus of what the actual meaning of the content is. Freire states Four times four is sixteenthe

student records, memorizes, and repeats [that] phrase without perceiving what four times four

actually means (1). Furthermore, he leads his readers deeper into what will be announced to

be the banking concept. This concept of teaching is more than likely what is taught within an

overwhelming student to teacher ratio. Teachers are more concerned of filling such quota, that

they lose track of the most important duty of all: teaching. What is the point of all the effort put

forth by teacher and student if both are left at the end unsatisfied?

Conclusively, education does not come cheap. Students do not indulge themselves in the

mounds of debt and lost free time just to wonder what they are actually learning as they walk out

of the classroom. With too many students crammed in to one session and expected to just soak

all the information up as if they were a sponge, in times of confusion, they are not able to

separately discuss the issue. Throwing many students in a room as an audience to one measly

educationist is like forcing a size 6 woman into a size 2; it does not work. Therefore, Size does in

fact matter.
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Works Cited

Appiah, Kwame Anthony. Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers.

Exploring Connections Learning in the 21st Century, Pearson Education, 2016, pp. 20-35

Freire, Pablo. The Banking Concept of Education. pp. 1-12.