Blog Assignment #6: LB Ch. 3 and Pedagogy of the Oppressed

   
    The banking-concept is the traditional form of education that Rose had experienced especially in his years in the vocational track. College Prep and Father Albertson begin to trek into the ideals of the libertarian model. With Father Albertson, Rose was able to have the academic language opened up to him. I too had a similar experience with the language of academia. For me, my grandmother was the one who took the time to explain some of the language and whys I asked.

     The idea of academia was to teach the elite to properly govern their lands and servants, but in a society no longer based on servitude, is this best course to take? This reading also connected back with the breakdown of education and class that Anyon talks about. Because when you really look at it, Rose was being taught by the ‘elite’ of old: the monks and priests of the Catholic Church. It is this very ‘elite’ who will eventually help him to gain entrance into the world of Academia. According to Freire, “In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing.” Within this statement, you can argue that this is precisely what has happened to Rose. The teachers and mentors that have influenced Mike Rose have inadvertently piggy-banked him. His understanding maybe greater than others, but it would be due the extent of his ability to retain such knowledge. What we know of Rose is what he tells us. For me it is difficult to know how well he influenced his instructors. Did he manage to teach them? If so, that would start to show the more liberating way of thinking that Freire addresses.

     Freire seems to be insistent that everyone is oppressed and should be liberated. But if all education is a power struggle, than how can you liberate? If one person has an understanding of an apple and the other an understanding an orange, but neither discuss with the other what their type of fruit they have, are they not placing themselves in power over the other person? If the answer is yes they both hold power over the other, then once again how do you liberate that knowledge? Freire states: "Those truly committed to liberation must reject the banking concept in its entirety, adopting instead a concept of women and men as conscious beings, and consciousness as consciousness intent upon the world. They must abandon the educational goal of deposit-making and replace it with the posing of the problems of human beings in their relations with the world."

     Therefore, my next question is how do you teach without depositing knowledge? Even the idea of questioning and analyzing must involve the intake of information. Consequently, it would seem almost impossible to not deposit some type of information in some way. The idea seems to be to see education as a right versus a gift, but in truth isn’t it both? Some people have to fight for that right and privilege. It seems that we may have forgotten that it is not just a right but a gift to become educated. But for some, it is a costly gift due to student loans and bad economies, but would Freire argue that this was really our cost for liberation? I would say honestly it is hard to say. But being that liberation of knowledge has been being discussed since the Greeks, it is my belief that this topic will not be decided or overly changed by my blog.

Blog Assignment 5: “The Hidden Curriculum of Work” by Anyon

     When reading Rose’s narrative of being placed in the Vocation Education and then later moved on to the College Prep, I began to question why the Vocational track is easier than College Prep. The goal of both tracks is to have education and a career, so why are they different? The answer to this question became clearer after reading Anyon’s research on teaching methods used in different economic statuses. In her research we find that the working class students are primarily told this is the ‘right’ way to do X. They are then taught not to question that ‘right’ way. It comes down to constant rote memorization and rule following. According to Anyon’s research, “Most of the rules regarding work are designations of what the children are to do; the rules are steps to follow… Work is often not evaluated according to whether it is right or wrong but according to whether the children followed the right steps.”


     In the educational system examined by Anyon, we can continue to see the differences in class that Rose eventually had to try and overcome. Anyon explains that in research done by Bowles and Gintis shows “students in different social-class backgrounds are re- warded for classroom behaviors that correspond to personality traits allegedly rewarded in the different occupational strata-the working classes for docility and obedience, the managerial classes for initiative and personal assertiveness.” Therefore, a student who is praised for ‘rule following’ will in turn be taught how to be ‘working’ to ‘middle’ class with the ‘affluent’ and ‘elite’ being rewarded for forward thinking.

     For Rose, it appears this is what happened to him and his fellow students. Rose’s own assessment is that “Students will float to the mark you set…Vocational education has aimed at increasing the economic opportunities of students who do not do well in our schools.” He goes on to say how some manage to succeed, but more often than not, “The vocational track, however, is most often a place for those who are just not making it, a dumping ground for the disaffected.” This statement still brings causes me to ask why? Why should the Vocational track be so easy? Wouldn’t it be better to teach critical thinking skills to ‘worker bees’? Learning how to see small problems and fixing it would allow work to be completed more efficiently.

    The increased efficiency, in theory, would give more time to the CEO and other management for creating new ideas and company expansion. Then again, if workers could think for themselves, then the fear may be that the CEO is not needed. As humans, we seem to like to know where we are in the pecking order. Maybe our educational system is set up to keep the pecking order and peace? Even so, should Vocational Tech be the dumping ground of the mediocre? To me, all tracks in education should have the same basic goals: to educate, to think critically, to peaceably solve problems, and to provide for an economically secure future.