Response: PAULO FREIRE: CHAPTER 2 OF PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED

Everything about this chapter spoke to me, despite its rather dark and preachy tone (almost 'end of days' tone). I appreciated the authors call to action to stop oppressing students and turning them into drones that are here to recite information and spit out what the teacher wants, at their own expense. I think it is interesting when the author relates students to citizens on welfare, and how these people have never been outside of society, but always inside and a part of it, because the oppressor desires to change the minds of those being repressed, not the situation which repressed them in the first place.

Another interesting point the author brought up was the banking concept of education. This is essentially when teachers simply deposit, and students receive patiently and recite back. The author argues that it is this method of teaching that dehumanizes students, and that creates filing cabinets and catalogs in students heads instead of spaces for creativity, critical thinking, and true knowledge.