Douglass vs Freire

By comparing Douglass’ love for education to Freire’s loathing for the common process of learning, it is difficult to determine for myself what I think of the system set up for children to gain knowledge through. It seems that the earlier stages are as Freire describes, but then the later stages are as Douglass depicts learning. Starting with before preschool through the beginning years of high school, all that is learned are facts and history; towards the end of high school and then through university, personal thought is encouraged, thinking outside of the box.

In elementary school, a child is required to take classes that are universal throughout all the classes. Basic math, the alphabet; both are bases for later learning, so how can Freire criticize what is meant to be the basis for progressive learning? I find what he describes as the “Banking Concept” crude. It is true that children are told things and are required to spit them back out, but a child isn’t one to learn on their own. Some kids are excited about going to school, because they know that they will see their friends. Children aren’t known to know what’s best for them, so having parents and the government makes them learn, they will not appreciate it until they are further along in their lives. I personally am extremely grateful of my high school learning, they way my teachers encouraged me to express my ideas without having to worry about them being wrong or not. But is everything that children are being filled with true?

There are so many topics that are touchy, and the type of learning that Douglass discusses is what’s so important for young learners to know. It can shake your world and it can open your eyes to the oppression and craziness that is the world today, but it will build up your ideas and that is what allows progression in the world. Take global warning, for an example of a touchy subject; so many people just believe what the entertainment industry is putting out, about how we need to save the planet and stop using pollutants. They don’t take the time to research it and find out that it could just be a high point in an endless cycle of warming and cooling the earth goes through every 100 or 1000 years; and this is what causes the populace to be ignorant of today’s issues. I personally don’t believe in global warming. Living in Alaska, we are at the head of the global warming rocket and the climate change is that of a minimal amount. I have done papers and watched anti-global warming shows, and they all have a common thread- the earth goes through stages, the ice age as an example, and though it is a good thing to help slow down the burning of the ozone layer and to reduce the greenhouse gases, it is not a thing that will kill us all in 1000 years. I just hope people will come up with their own ideals and not follow those that are put out into the air. I think this is some of what Freire is talking about when he calls students ‘depositories’, how people just take in what they are told and not thinking about it critically. Only if children were encouraged to be different and were not penalized by their peers for it would the education system be better.