Second Reading Questions for Freire

1. According to Freire, the “problem-posing” class is one in which the educator is merely a creator with the students rather than a creator of the students. Therefore, the role of the students is no longer a passive one. When placing this type of educational method in an english class, the students work with the teacher in discussions. They argue back and forth, proving that no one way of thinking is superior. In the atmostphere of a math class, problems can be attempted and solved in more than one distinct way. The “problem-posing” educational approach is one in which communication is encouraged and thoughts and ideas are liberated, instead of restrained. The “authentic form of thought and action”does not consider abstract ideas, instead it focuses on concrete images and no freedom of knowledge. The term “reflection” refers to the knowledge that is given out from what is believed. According to this definition, teachers should allow their students to think creatively on their own so that their “reflections” may bear new ideas and theories that may otherwise have been restrained in an authentic form of education.

“Conscious of Consciousness”…I am taken back to a time when I was in psychology class and had to write a paper about my dreams. Because of this realization that is existant in the banking concept of education, I could better understand how the things that I view in my world, whether it is in dreams or not, are my own perceptions of reality, no one else’s. This helped me to write my paper because, since my dreams were mine only, no one else could share the same experience. Although people view the world each day in much of the same aspects as I do, no two visions are exactly alike.

2. The term “praxis” refers to a custom and according to the educational system this goes along with the whole banking system in which individuals are not encouraged to come up with new theories but to practice and learn existing customs. As part of this system, students feel alienated. It is not until they are granted freedom of thought and expression that they can truly avoid this type of educational alienation.

3. I don’t think that Friere enacts his own principles of “filling” students or reader minds like deposits in the bank. I feel that he is stating what he has theorized, and instead he is trying to open our minds to be more revolutionary and free. He offers these new ideas of the problem-posing method in an attempt to change the way in which we approach education. However he states ahead of time how these teachings are embedded into students minds. Thus, this being said, Freire hopes to “fill” the readers minds with knowledge that he or she can determine whether they want to follow or develop their own ideas from.

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