Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

Paulo makes a discerning case about how "education is suffering from narration sickness." In the banking concept of education, Paulo believes that "knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing."

"Translated into practice, this concept is well suited to the purposes of the oppressors, whose tranquility rests on how well people fit the world the oppressors have created, and how little they question it."

This solution is not (nor can it be) found in the banking concept. On the contrary, banking education maintains and even stimulates the contradiction through the following attitudes and practices, which mirror oppressive society as a whole:

• the teacher teaches and the students are taught;

• the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing;

• the teacher talks and the students listen -- meekly;

• the teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined;

• the teacher chooses and enforces his choice, and the students comply;

• the teacher acts and the students have the illusion of acting through the action of the teacher;

• the teacher chooses the program content, and the students (who were not consulted) adapt to it; 

• the teacher confuses the authority of knowledge with his or her own professional authority, which she and he sets in opposition to the freedom of the students;

• the teacher is the Subject of the learning process, while the pupils are mere objects.

 Cultural Synthesis

"Cultural action either serves domination (consciously or unconsciously) or it serves the liberation of men and women." When leaders work collaboratively with people, together they create their own destinies rather than following predetermined plans. "If the workers do not somehow come to be owners of thier own labor, all structural reforms will be ineffective...they [must] be owners, not sellers, of their labor...[for] any purchase or sale of labor is a type of slavery."