Analysis of Paulo Freire's "Banking Concept of Education"

Paulo Freire’s dissertation, Banking Concept of Education, is expressed more as a call-

to-arms rather than an informative passage. After reading the excerpt of Pedagogy of the 

Oppressed, Freire cautions that the current construct of the educational system is a self-fulfilling 

prophecy that not only fails to teach students, but ultimately creates automatons that are never 

able to grasp a sense of reality. Freire frequently criticizes the current teaching method as 

“becoming lifeless and petrified” as well as being more a “hollow verbosity” than actual content. 

According to Freire, the process of how students are being taught results in those pupils only 

being able to regurgitate information without actually perceiving its significance and meaning. 

Although Paulo Freire brings up some notable points, there were some inconsistencies 

present. To start, Freire is hypocritical when he claims that teachers exist only to dehumanize, 

which by saying so he also dehumanizes the teachers. Freire unfairly criticizes all teachers of 

being oppressive, which cannot be true because all pedagogues alike have different styles of 

teaching, and all students most certainly have different methods of learning. Furthermore, Freire 

advocates for a neutral, unbiased method of teaching which is only possible in theory, since 

teaching by definition involves someone of higher knowledge passing down information through 

instruction. 

In an effort to empathize, I can agree with Freire when he describes how dominant 

elites of a society can carry out mandates in the name of freedom, order, and social peace 

through violent means. This motif can be attributed to the United States’ military involvement 

in Vietnam during the 1960’s, which was notoriously known for the ironic tactic of “bombing 

for peace.” Fast forwarding to current events, Freire’s allegation that students are never fully 

able to reach self-actualization because teachers don’t promote self-development can be loosely 

correlated to Walmart employees who are kept at menial entry-level jobs without the prospect of 

a future promotion because management won’t provide them with the proper training.

While reading Paulo Freire’s dissertation, I couldn’t help but relate its message to that 

of a Pink Floyd music video, Another Bick in the Wall (Part II), which has lyrical themes of 

disillusionment, exploitation, and oppression. To continue, Freire’s viewpoint on teachers 

seemed to come from the same perspective as political philosopher Thomas Hobbes from the 

1650’s, who was a proponent that people were naturally wicked, selfish, and cruel who act on the 

behalf of their best interests, rather than that of John Locke (1698), who believed all people were 

inherently good and righteous.

In the final analysis of this reading, Paulo Freire takes it to the extreme when he 

challenges the groundwork of standard teaching practices. There is a clear disconnect between 

Freire’s criticism of the techniques that teachers utilize in the classroom to the “David vs. 

Goliath” notion that society must rise up to the atrocities of scholastic lectures.