How Friere would change K-12 Education.

Given a chance Paolo Friere would flip our education system on its head. He compares our current style of educating to a checking account for information: depositing, withdrawing and saving. Friere makes the point that this “banking” concept teaches students to memorize what they are taught but never to truly grasp the meaning behind the content they are being delivered. He idealizes a society that promotes thoughtful invention free of narration, a teachers role being not that of a depository of information, but for the teacher to be growing alongside their students experimenting and promoting conscious thought. So if Friere could change one thing in the K-12 system it would be to redefine the role of the teacher. He compares the current teaching styles to an oppressive society that does the opposite of promoting education and critical thinking. The current style of teaching would be thrown out, and a teacher’s role would be more similar to the role of the student; “Teacher-student”, “students-teachers” both students and teachers being responsible for each other’s and their own educational experience. Completely removing a teachers authoritative position; teachers would no longer expect their students to simply listen and absorb the information he/she puts out to the classroom, but to present information up for debate and consideration. Friere believes that only through this complete redefinition of a teacher’s role will our society succeed in producing conscious thoughtful individuals. My own paper involves changing our learning environment, and there could be a few comparisons in both Friere and my own opinions of our current educational system. Friere is a bit extreme for my taste, and uses unnecessarily complex language that narrows the audience. I will have to be careful to mediate myself, and will avoid taking quite as antagonistic of an approach as Friere. Friere knows where he stands, and poses a very strong argument, he compares his ideas to the opposing ideas in a light that favors his own and this definitely promotes his cause.