Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed was one of the most compelling education theories I have ever read. After reading it the first time my first reaction was to compare all the teachers, I had from nursery to my college years. I asked myself who among my teachers were banking method teachers and who were the problem-posing teachers. To my knowledge, only a handful of my teachers used the problem-posing approach in education. Most of those teachers that used it combined the banking model of education with problem-posing education. Few educators are familiar with Paulo Freire. A few of those that do know about him would think it is not necessary for their students to learn about his ideas. Most American educators discount Freire's ideology.
             In fact, the information I gathered from the public library directly relates to how much importance Americans put on Freire's theory with diminutive amount of information available on Freire.
             Paulo Freire argues that "The Banking Concept of Education" is a futile attempt to educate students. However, I think discounting the banking concept, as a useful educational tool is a mistake.
             Freire's ideas are from his life experiences. He was born in Recife, Brazil to a middle class family, which in spite of their social status still experienced poverty during the depression. Much of his ideology was from his experience with teaching illiterate adults to read and write. During this time, he taught his students to think critically so that they can take charge of their own lives. He created an environment where the teacher and the student have equal standing. This method, the problem-posing method of education proved to be a success for him at that time because he applied what he learned from his past and because of the plight of his countrymen.
             Though he was successful with his teaching method, in reality, his success was because his students...