#5 Chapter 2 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Wow!  I have never viewed students as being oppressed, or teachers as their oppressors.  After finishing the reading for this post, I realized that our teaching methods could in fact be oppressive.  I remember a time in school where we were thrown a bunch of facts and we as students were expected to memorize the facts and dates and who was involved.  I have a good memory so I was able to remember those facts, but I don’t remember learning why those facts were so important to learn.

I don’t agree with the “banking” method of education.  I as a teacher am definitely NOT all knowing, and my students are not completely devoid of knowledge.  I like the approach to teaching where we discuss things and find out why the facts are what they are.  I have found in my practicum class that the more discussion that happens, the more students will retain the facts and the events leading up to to facts.

It is my goal as a teacher to talk TO my students and not AT them.  I enjoy finding out what they think and why they think it.  I find that my students know more about certain things than I do, and I am always looking things up if I am not sure of what happened, why it happened, and who was involved.  I want to encourage my students to learn as much as they can about anything that interests them.  Throwing names, dates and places at them will not encourage the kind of deep thinking that I want them to do.  I look forward to making our discussions interesting and meaningful so that what they are being taught finds a place in their minds and grows thoughts towards other things they can think deeply about.