Journal Entry #2.

1) Quotes:

1. “His task is to “fill” the students with the contents of his narration—contents which are detached from reality, disconnected from the totality that engendered them and could give them significance.” (Page 1)

This reminds me of a lot of my classes I have taken in high school, a lot of the things my teachers would teach would be so completely irrelevant and completely disconnected from anything the students could relate to, it was really specifically for what the teacher wanted to teach. And it wasn’t even that they wanted to teach, it was more of a job to them and it’s sad to me that public school has become something like that.

2.“Worse yet, it turns them into “containers,” into “receptacles” to be “filled” by the teachers. The more completely she fills the receptacles, the better a teacher she is. The more meekly the receptacles permit themselves to be filled, the better the students they are.” (Page 1)

This really reminds me of that situation in school again. The teachers would basically just teach you whatever and expect you to be empty. He describes how the better the teacher is really depends on how well they can fill the “receptacles” and how the students really are graded on how well they can, “…permit themselves to be filled….” It’s sad in this day and age we are relying on that to measure how bright a student is, instead of their actual talents. Intelligence is really based on how well you can play the games of public education.

3. “It follows logically from the banking notion of consciousness that the educator’s role is to regulate the way the world “enters into” the students.” (Page 4)

This reminds me of Gatto’s piece and how education is really mainly there to manage people and teaches people to be managed. This quote really adds to that and talks about how education is something that almost creates droids, zombies that are really brought up through the school system to act a certain way.

2) Identify:

I think that Freire really is second-guessing the school system we have now. He doesn’t believe in memorizing facts and forcing information down upon students because the teachers choose it, like he said, being fed information like receptacles of information. Not only that he is challenging why we don’t teach critical thinking. He believes this is key in order to really creating a generation of well-educated people. He believes that creativity and less of a “structured” system of education would be more helpful.

3) Questions:

1. How does Freire expect to achieve this education system and the level of critical thinking necessary for a generation of well-educated students?

I believe that Freire thinks that we can achieve this education system through critical thinking and teachers who will really focus less on the “structured” education system and more on the other ways students learn.

2. What does critical thinking consist of in the public education?

This question really got me thinking. I really was curious as to what “critical thinking” really is. I think that critical thinking would be something that could challenge the students and allowing them to explore through their own thinking process as a way of learning. I believe that critical thinking is something that should be done in school systems because it really is a good way for students to explore their interests of learning as well as expand their knowledge.

3. How would the new education system benefit the students in the future?

I think that Freire believes and expects that the education system he wants, if possible to achieve, will help create less “zombies” and open recepticles of knowledge. Students would have more “applied” knowledge where as now, the knowledge in a school system is just the memorization of facts and information. The critical thinking would pose as a helpful guide in the future for students who would normally have less critical thinking skills.