What Education Equals
Posted by sammyk2 on January 28, 2008
Samantha Kujala 1/27/08 ENGL 121 Ariana Paliobagis
What Education Equals
Douglas and Freire both look at education and see it as something else not just simply education. Douglas sees his education as a source and answer to his freedom. While Freire relates education to banking and also believes there is a problem with teaching.
I think Douglas was very smart; smarter than he gave himself credit for. He was clever for really having no education. For example how he tricked the other boys into teaching him how to write. Douglas was very determined to learn how to read and write. I think reading played a very important role for Douglas, because being able to read was how he found out he was living in country that was all about freedom. Just knowing that piece of information as a slave would be very shocking. Although, knowing this for Douglas is also sometimes a curse. He is punished for reading, for what he has learned, and wishes to be as ignorant as other slaves. But even with this curse he continued to teach himself and learn from others.
Freire I believe would think very highly of Douglas because Douglas didn’t go to school he learned from others. Freire felt that education wasn’t something that should just be received from a teacher at school. School became like banking in a way, because students don’t absorb information they just store it and go through the same routine each day. Teachers were depositing information into empty minds, creating an account. Freire believed to learn something and become knowledgeable, teachers need to engage in conversations. It’s hard to learn something if you are not actively learning and really retaining the information. I definitely agree with Freire that people learn from each other. With Douglas he was absolutely learning from others and teaching others. Douglas showed the little white boys in town how different slaves were, not being able to read and write. He taught his mistress that he was no different from anyone else and could learn to read. Learning from others was an important message Freire was trying to get across and was also an essential tool for Douglas.
