Ideas on Education A Comparison of the Ideas of Pablo Freire and Parker Palmer
The traditional role of education has been criticized by many. ... In “The Banking Concept of Education,” Paulo Freire criticizes the traditional role of education and proposes a solution to this role. In “Meeting for Learning,” Parker Palmer also criticizes the traditional role of education as well as proposes a solution to this problem. Although Freire and Palmer agree that the traditional role of education is ineffective, they differ in their approach to the solution of the problem. While Freire believes that knowledge emerges from critical thinking and thinks the solution to the problem lies in posing problems to all people involved in the educational process, Palmer believes that knowledge emerges in dialogue and thinks the solution lies in interactions between all people involved in the educational process. Freire and Palmer have many similar ideas on the traditional role of education. ... Freire states that the traditional role of education turns students “into “containers,” into “receptacles” to be “filled” by the teacher” (Freire 260). Palmer agrees with this idea when he states that in the traditional role of education “the teacher addresses the individual student, treating him or her as a receptacle to be filled with knowledge” (Palmer 2). Both authors do not approve of passive learning and the passive roles of students in the traditional role of education. ... Freire believes that “education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both as simultaneously teachers and students” (Freire 260). Both authors share this point of view in believing that in order to get rid of this traditional role of education, everyone must have equal power in the classroom. Palmer states that in his solution to the problem of the traditional role of education “the roles of teacher and student continually move from one person to another, and it should be impossible at any moment to anticipate who will be teacher next” (Palmer 4).