In Freire’s essay “The 'Banking' Concept of Education”, he thoroughly attacks the flaws we have in the education system today and presents a new solution which Freire thinks will solve the current issues with learning in the classroom. The current concept of education now, Freire states, is the overbearing “deposit” of information taught by teachers to their students. While Freire believes that there is only one type of learning being used in the classroom, “Chike’s School Days” provides evidence of more than one learning system being used.
The term “banking concept,” which is presented by Freire, is believed to be an act that yields the students intellectual growth by forming them into “receptors” of information that has no real connections to their lives. Freire states: “In this view the person is not a conscious being; he or she is rather the possessor of a consciousness: an empty “mind” passively open to the reception of deposits of reality from the world outside” (Freire 4). Achebe states “Chike was very fond of “Ten Green Bottles.” They had been taught the words, but they only remembered the first and last lines. The middle was hummed and hie-ed and mumbled” (Achebe 829). This supports Freire’s “banking concept” because it is addressing the children being “collectors” of what they are being taught and not truly comprehending what they are supposed to be learning. They are singing a song in class that they were not fully understanding and will never use outside the classroom.
Freire believes a “liberating” educational system is ineffective to those who have roles in the classroom, and no false intellectual incentive would be known in that system. No matter what the students are responsible for learning the material being taught, even if the subject is irrelevant to the students’ lives. “According to the teacher, there were five methods: by man, by animals, by water, by wind, and by explosive mechanism. Even those pupils who forgot all the other methods remembered “explosive mechanism”” (Achebe 830). Chike reminds the reader of the five methods but also mentioned the students forgot all of them except for explosive mechanism. This proves that the material was being provided but not important enough to the students that they would remember the information. But Chike also points out that he was not impressed with what was being taught in the classroom, but he was impressed with the extensive vocabulary his teacher had. The students were not interested in what was being taught, but more in what sounded more interesting to say. Freire is correct that this was not relevant to the students’ lives, but it was still their duty to understand and learn the concepts which they also were not doing.
What Freire means by this is that the banking concept demands a break between a person and the “real world”, which would result in the evident death of their true consciousness, since the past can only be realized through the connections and relationships the individual takes from the material to their life. Freire believes that assuming the roles of students being the receptors and teachers as the depositors, the banking concept then results the humans as objects. Humans have no self-determination meaning they will not have the ability to analyze and rationalize knowledge at a personal level. And because of this misunderstanding, the method is known as a system of control and oppression. “But he loved stories and songs. And he liked particularly the sound of English words, even when the conveyed no meaning at all. Some of them simply filled him with elation. He had a vague private meaning for it and it had something to do with fairyland” (Achebe 830). Achebe is illustrating that Chike is not actually learning the meaning of the words being taught and that he simply was fascinated with the way the words sounded. Chike was satisfied with the words themselves rather than the true meaning behind them, or what they truly meant. He was restricting his own knowledge by not getting the full understanding of what was being presented. Chike loved words, not their meaning.
To ease the tension built by the banking concept, Freire introduces what is known as “problem-posing education”. In this advance, the roles of teachers and students become less organized, and both take parts in acts of dialogic enhancement to effectively understand knowledge from each other. According to Freire, “Knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other” (Freire 1). “Only the other day he had raised applause from his class by demolishing a boy’s excuse for lateness with unanswerable erudition. He had said: “Procrastination is a lazy man’s apology.” The teacher’s erudition showed itself in every subject he taught” (Achebe 830). Achebe was not aware that he was using both of the different learning mechanisms throughout his story, but it provided proof that both could be used even if he did not know. While the “banking concept” is being used throughout the story I also see evidence of “problem-posing education” as well. I believe the teacher has realized from his students that they are more intrigued by uncommon and larger words. So, he tries to use these words to keep the students’ attention. But the students are also learning from the teacher as well, they learn to not use poor excuses or any excuse at all for their faults because it will only hurt them. With the way he taught his subjects it really kept Chike on the edge of his seat because some of his work Chike called “memorable.” While the knowledge may not have related to school, the students learned a life lesson from a teacher who stands outside the box.
The Freirean spectrum is consistent with genuine “problem-posing” at one end, pseudo “problem-posing” at the center and “banking” at the other end, mocks the real world reminding us that someone is always subject to a higher level of authority. The dynamics of these relationships depend on how much each person is willing to provide and receive, this means to what degrees the higher authority misuses their control and if the student allows them too. Throughout “Chike’s School Days” the relationship between the students and the teacher was always respected. The teacher taught the class, and the students listened. When the student came in late to class, if he was just honest about his tardiness and did not make an excuse then the teacher would have been more understanding with them. But instead of being honest he made an excuse and the teacher embarrassed him in front of his peers. The teacher was not misusing his control but taking an advantage of it. He wanted to prove that excuses are only hurting the one telling them.
In conclusion, Freire had many valid points to why the education system is corrupted in today’s society and in “Chike’s School Days” by Achebe. But Freire was not correct that only one learning concept can be used in a classroom at a time. His “banking concept” and “problem-posing”, were being used frequently throughout Achebe’s work. While Achebe had no knowledge of what his story could debate against in the future, he showed that a wide number of learning systems could be used in a classroom. I believe that Achebe’s story was a great example of proving different kinds of learning can be taught in a classroom at a time, while Freire limited the expectations.