The Banking Method and its Faults

“The outstanding characteristic of this narrative education, then, is the sonority of words, not their transforming power. "Four times four is sixteen; the capital of Para is Belem." This quote stuck with me in the readings because I have been through this process as a student.
As it continues, “The student records, memorizes, and repeats these phrases without perceiving what four times four really means, or realizing the true significance of "capital" in the affirmation "the capital of Para is Belem," that is, what Belem means for Para and what Para means for Brazil.”

Memorization and not learning the true content is such an applicable thing I see in classrooms. Teachers deposit information into the students brains. All the students have to do is receive, memorize, and repeat for the rest of their scholarly life. Yes, this banking method is important to remember terms and methods, but it is not learning; it is memorizing. This method does not apply a partnership between the teacher and students. A partnership between both of them is needed for a successful process in school.
“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.” As a teacher who keeps depositing this knowledge on students a teacher must know that not every student learns the same way. I for one can not learn from just being the one who must memorize all the information and not knowing how it works. A teacher must communicate with his or her students and find ways they all can learn and progress.
It is not just the teachers fault in this depositing process. When a teacher ask if everyone is following along, a common response is, “yep”. That is because students are afraid to communicate with a teacher.  Students must learn to communicate and tell teachers that their method is difficult to learn. Both of them together can find a way to learn from each other through communication.

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