Reading Response: Freire and Gatto on the Public Education System.

While reading the Freire and Gatto, I enjoyed and agreed with the most of their discussion about the Public education system in America. In their article they criticized the public education system which is trying to make every individual a good citizen, but at the same time dull students. Somehow, If I think about the present system, It is true to some extent that our school’s are designed to teach the education as mandatory for every individual, but there real purpose is to make them servants for the society. Our teachers teach us the education which is already organized by the scholars and students are spouse to fill up all of that information which he considers as a true knowledge for them. Somehow, they are making students as a product, but not intelligent. The students should be taught beyond to the pre-designed education, they should not only given lectures, but also communicate with them, this could help them to establish good understanding and enhance their social skills because most of the individuals lack the social skills which are really important in their practical life. However, there should be a close relationship between a students and the teacher, by which they feel free to talk each other, so that the students can think creative and feel the independence. Meanwhile reading the Freire and Gatto, I came to the conclusion that education is the most important thing for every individual. They should not be made as a dull student, who goes to school, finish up with his studies and run for the job, but don’t know his aim in the life.

Freire’s article discussed the current school system as a “banking system”, where information is deposited into the students in order to be regurgitated at a later date and proposed a “problem posing” system that would encourage critical thinking instead of regurgitation of information. Freire claimed that this banking system dehumanizes students and discourages individuality. I agree for the most part with the opinion of the article. A system of education that treats its students like ATM machines, does nothing more than dehumanize them enough to fulfill their role in our mechanical society. Public schooling was initially brought up during the renaissance by “humanists” in order to produce educated citizens who would be able to take part in their civic duties. I don’t think these “humanists” understood the dehumanizing consequences of molding prospective citizens into memorizing and repeating machines. Education should be about letting students reach their full potential as critically thinking humans instead of turning out robots to maintain the state of society.

Gatto/Freire Reading Response

As I read Gatto and Freire and their opinions on education, I began to re-evaluate my experiences as a student in the public school system. I came to the conclusion that while I have had to develop in a sub-par school in need of renovation and an update to the faculty-student relationships, I have not had the experience that Gatto or Freire predicted. My teachers were, for the most part, willing to teach in a method not unlike the Socratic Method of asking and answering questions. I would often speak during these sessions and our class would not always come to any one conclusion and we would have to compromise on a solution together (unlike Freire's belief that all conclusions to a class lecture and their meanings are determined by the teacher).
I think that this is because Oregon attracts a more dedicated group of teachers from all over the country due to the higher standards that Oregon sets for a teaching degree. Because of their dedication too teaching, they might approach an issue in a variety of ways in order to help the students understand and question the information that the teachers are providing, including the discussion of the material by the students. Because of this, we don't have to worry about the quality of our education in Oregon as much as in other states; we only have to worry about how dedicated we are to leartning.

Ryan C.

Muriels Reading Response

Reading Response:

In Paulo Freiere's Pedagogy of the Oppressed he continually bring up the comparison between "problem posing education" and " banking education". Banking education is the simple act of a teacher mindlessly feeding her students facts she believes to be relevant. The information is then stored by the student simply to be regurgitated at a later time, while they never really understand why the answer is what it is.

On the other end of the spectrum problem posing education encourages students to really think about the why instead of simply the what. Education should be full of questions, experiences, and inspiration. Problem posing education allows that and changes the student teacher relationship to where both parties are equally learning from each other. Theoretically the student should be able to arise just as many thought provoking questions within the teacher as the teacher does the student.

I personally agree with most of Freier's thoughts on education throughout this article. Within all the articles we have read, and even some of the classes i have attended my first week of college, it seems they are really pushing the idea of critical thinking as appose to the generic way of learning. It is obvious critically thinking students will be quite successful in school while enjoying the process of learning.

Ironic would be the first word that came to mind when reading Colombo’s Critical Thinking, Challenging Cultural Myths. Ironic, because here I was sitting in a a seemingly traditional classroom, being assigned a reading that encouraged me to challenge traditional thinking. I enjoyed the article right away because it opened up with a sentence I immediately could relate too; “beginning college can be a disconcerting experience.” Sure enough, I had some disconcertion going on.

I particularly liked what Colombo had to say about myth and culture. I’ve always viewed culture as something rich and distinctly unique to humanity, but I never thought of it as having negative connotations, as well. Colombo stated that through culture, comes rigid customs that take a true critical thinker to break and question why those customs are the way they are.

It is within our traditional education system that we learn to obey these myths and customs and are rarely challenged to question them. This takes me strait to Gatto. The soul of Gatto’s argument is that our education system is full of flaws. it’s boring, ridged, and and encourages mediocracy. Friere shared similar views and even went as far as to say that oppression in our schools is caused by the love of death and destruction, rather then creation.

The key points of these three articles run parallel. The connections between them are blatant and obvious, and Colombo, Gatto, and Friere share very similar views. As for buffalo gals, however, the connection did not come quickly. To be honest, it didn’t really come at all. Though, I did connect it to our discussion about what separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. We made assumptions that we are the only species capable of language and deep emotions, but it could be that we’re just looking at it form a different perspective. Just like how gal saw coyote as a person, and horse saw gal as a colt. It all depended on perspective, and our perspective could be completely off. Buffalo gals was humbling in that way, and even though I didn't find a direct way to connect it to the other readings, Buffalo gals did spark a lot of critical thinking

3 readings

In reading Columbo, Friere and Gotto I came to the conclusion that education is the most important thing that you can do for any other human being. I don't want any one to end up like me goin back to school at my age. Going to one dead end job to another not know what I want to be when I grow up. It is embarrassing to know that our country is 15th. in math and science in the world and 11th. in reading. Even though I heard that on the "Steven Colbert" show which is a syterical, comedy news show in gives real news stories with a comedic twist. I dont think any thing is wrong with memorizing facts. I will email my original writing to you which gets to the point better.

Definition of nature:
I wanted to look in the dictionary or on line to give the "official" definition , then mine however dictionary.com was rather lengthy so I choose the ones which most agree with my personal definition so first we'll go with dictionary.com.
1. the material world, esp, asa surrounding humankind and existing independently of human activivtes.
2. The natural world as it iexixts without human benngs. As mountains trees etc.
3. A primitave, wild, condition; an uncultivated state.
4. The original, natural, uncivilized condition of humakind.
Definition of human.
1.or or pertaining to characters of or having the nature of people.
2.Consisting of peopole: the human race.
3.Of or pertaining to the soccial aspect of people: human affairs.
These are the ones from the dictionary which most fit my dedinition. My point and most likiley the point of the instructor is that the 2 words are intertwined and can hardly be descrived or defined as one without defining them together and using "human" in describing "nature" to describe "human"

Human/Nature RR

Reading Response: Colombo, Freire, and Gatto Down With the Public Education
It's very apparent when reading the articles by Colombo, Freire, and Gatto that they share a very strong opinion on the public education system in America. Colombo, Freire, and Gatto see the public education system as this tyrant that wants to take over the creative individual, abolish all critical thinking from the youth, and create the perfect consumer for America. In many ways I agree with what Colombo, Freire, and Gatto have to say about the public education system, it's taking away the passion and inspiration that is supposed to go with learning, but going as far as to say that the public education system is like “banking” and that our minds are nothing but capsules that are being filled with pointless information that all “average” and “general” people that need to be ruled by society should know seems extreme. We might be forced by law to stay in school for a certain amount of time and be forced to take certain classes in that time period, but many people continue on in that same heartless public education system and take something great away from it. If it wasn't for the public education system we would all be left to find a way to pay for expensive private schooling or be taught by our parents, and in no disrespect, but the times and exceptions of education are changing and many parents nowadays can't keep up with the rigorous learning that we are now entailed to have, just as a basic knowledge. So yes, maybe public education takes things away, but if the student really wants to know and learn they will take it upon themselves to make it happen and learn much more from it then just having it shoved in their “capsule” by some teacher.

Reading Response 1 by: John Wall

Reading Response 1
Throughout my first in FRINQ, we read three assigned readings which for the most part I enjoyed. The readings opened my eyes to some common problems we as students run into today. Colombo talked about the problems with students not being able to think critically and cultural myths. Gato talked about how the problem of boredom in school creates problems and that school doesn’t allow students to explore their interests. While the most recent Freire talked about how the schools sole function of teaching is like a banking account. These all have a common theme of students not being able to reach their full potential in school.
Within the readings Gato and Freire the problem seems to have to be with the teacher and or environment. Due to the practice of how teachers educate students is the idea of banking. As the student sits in class their brain is just to remain an open account while the teacher fills it with information. This is just like a lecture class because if all the students are just listening and not responding they become bored. Both the students and teachers can control this boredom if the teachers would allow the students to question the material and become critical thinkers with Colombo thought students should be able to do.
In conclusion, schools need to force teachers to allow for a more challenging yet open minded environment so that students can become critical thinkers. This would help control the problem of boredom throughout school.

Hindering Critical Thinking

After reading the two articles written by Colombo and Friere, my previous perception of the education system was challenged and as a result adjusted. In Colombo’s article three major points stuck out. Public education has a single purpose of creating or developing an average human to meet the standards of society. Second, speaking from experience he stated that education was boring for both the teacher and student. The greatest point he made however, was in his conclusion where he said that it is up to the parents to teach their child ways of critical thinking. While I wasn’t a fan of the majority of the article, this idea needs to be spread throughout. Despite the fact that our children may spend more time with their teachers than their parents, the parents need to take initiative and be proactive if they want their child to rise above the average human that our education system breads.
In parallel, Friere’s article also speaks of how our current education system hinders creativity. He explains this using the example of a banking system. This states that the student is like a bank account in that the student is always receiving knowledge from the teacher. This is a one way relationship. The teacher teaches and the students only gain. He goes on to say how a better education system would contain a symbiotic student-teacher relationship where the teacher is teaching the student aswell as learning from the student and the student is learning from the teacher aswell as teaching the teacher. For the most part I belive that both student and teacher should ‘know’ their places, it does benefit both sides if student and teacher can keep an open mind with their relationship. Many times I think that the teachers are the only ones aware of this. Students may not even realize the impact of what they said in class or wrote in a paper has on their teacher. I’m quite positive that my perspective will change though because the teacher student relationship is much different in the collegiate atmoshpere. I have yet to come to any epiphanies.

Gatto, Colombo, and Paulo Freire

While reading the essays I'd have to say the one I enjoyed and agreed with the most was John Gatto, he was very relate able and all of his points, from my experience, were spot on. He explains that both the teachers and the students are at fault, he mentions that both the "students and teachers as virtual factories of childishness". To me this statement is very significant, the children are bored and the teachers typically aren't interested in what they are talking about and as a result the children don't learn and the the teacher gets frustrated, which is childish and makes it a bad learning experience. Being bored in school or with life breeds laziness which effects how well the student will do when he "gets out in the real world" as they say. He also touches on the fact that teachers hands are tied, the school board and other forces make it hard for them to teach in a style more engaging for the teacher and the student. Paulo Freire's essay was very strong and analytical, almost as if he was speaking about his topic from a distance and in metaphors. One of his comments I liked was the students "tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them". I strongly agree with this, in school you are separated from the world and how it works; it's like the military, the military is a way of life and then there is the civilian life. Students are not exposed to the hurdles of life, they are not even prepared for it; what a company wants, how to apply for a job, etc..All in all I think that Colombo, Gatto, and Freire all made very good points but I think Gatto's was the most agreeable for me.

On the Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Of the articles we have read Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed formed the greatest argument and solution to the problem of education. Similar to the other readings Freire had rejected the current idea of fact based teachings. Instead he encouraged this idea of problem posing teaching.

Freire is correct in his assumption that banking education turns people into “containers” and “receptacles.” By educating our youth this way we are oppressing them from their potential and simply forcing them to integrate into society. But he says one thing that I do not agree with. He says in order for the problem posing technique to be truly successful the banking method must never be used. An idea which I find impossible if not at least improbable, every student needs a foundation of facts and statistics to better form his thoughts when placed in a problem posing situation. If students are given no tangible basis for their opinion you will find them in class unable to create a sound argument.

After the initial teachings of facts and statistics in the old banking style it is then that the problem posing style should be implemented. It seems to me that we go through schooling with a similar time line to the one I outlined. Although, problem posing teaching is implemented later then I would assume useful. High school gave me an introduction to problem posing teaching, but college has thrown students head first into class discussions, and with only about four years of school left, the banking method has poisoned our minds too deeply. I agree with Freire’s arguments towards education but I feel such one sidedness should be reconsidered.

Kyle E.

Reading Response #1

I think the year is starting off well, everything we have read I was able to relate to in some way and compare the text to situations in my own life. Of the three readings Gatto stood out the most to me, all of his major points I could relate to in some way and his wording was easy for me to understand making the concepts he was talking about easier to break down. When we broke down into small groups to discuss the reading I brought up a quote my history teacher from the year prior had up on her whiteboard throughout the year, “If you are bored you are boring.” It’s simple and completely relates to the first subject of Gatto’s piece. I fully agree with the idea, you can always combat boredom in some way. Even in a class where the subject matter may not be exactly to your liking if you find one part you can take an interest in you can fight the urge to fall asleep or text your friend who is sitting two seats away.

The above mentioned teacher was always looking for new ways to get the class involved, which brings me to Ferire’s ideas on the educational style of banking. We rarely took notes and commonly had group discussions and debates where we were encouraged to speak our minds and at times take a side we wouldn’t unless being prompted. It made the class think in a way they wouldn’t normally and broadened our learning experience by teaching us to think for ourselves and outside of our normal realm of thought. Having her teach history in that way was interesting and made me stop to think about the actual necessity of the banking system. History classes are typically taught in a banking nature, you are given text to read and dates to memorize. But if you can take a class like that and change it up to teach the basic background but allow room for people to grow as critical thinkers, shouldn’t you take that opportunity? To me it seems like an easier answer, yes!

~Ariel M.