Freire's depiction of banking education, now, is definitely similar to how Mike Rose illustrated his schooling experience. Mike Rose's major point in his story was about how the teacher's, essentially, aimed to just OCCUPY the students instead of actually teaching them because the of their perceptions that these students knew nothing and were not worth teaching. "In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing."(Freire,2012) This quote definitely exemplifies just how much of the learning process is put into the hands of a teacher, which in some cases can be a bad idea. For example, in the vocational education program, Rose and his peers did not receive any quality education because the teachers did not care enough to choose to invest in the students by teaching them material they could and would need to be successful in life. And, in return, most of the students did not strive to be any better than what was expected of them as "below average", isolated, vocational ed. students which Freire seemingly touched on in his quote, "The students, alienated like the slave in the Hegelian dialectic, accept their ignorance as justifying the teachers existence -- but unlike the slave, they never discover that they educate the teacher." (Freire, 2012). Rose and his peers essentially received education that did not appeal to and, as a result, limited their creativity and learning processes and turned them into mere "receptacles" of the school system. They became human beings who went to school only to be filled with information that was not relevant to or useful in the real world- the students realities. In my mind, problem-posing education is taking away the overbearing degree of separation between the teacher and the student in the classroom. By this I simply mean make the teacher and the student essentially "equals" as far as education, knowledge and the exchange of knowledge is concerned. I say this because at the end of the day, teachers are not some SUPER HUMAN BEINGS who know everything in the world that there is to know and that they're just there to impart all of this wisdom on students; teachers are in the classroom to learn just like we are and, in some cases they do learn from us. Problem-posing education would consist of the teachers and students consciously working together to analyze the world and the realities that they live in to make sense of the things around them. To me, humans can never stop learning because this world evolves and changes every single day but I think the major accomplishment in the learning process is when we LEARN TO LEARN TOGETHER AS EQUALS no matter the age, gender or color. We each possess knowledge that we can share with others and I think that if the education system would stop using teachers as "wardens" of a classroom and actually use them as tools of collectively learning and interacting with students that education would take a significant turn for the better.
"Average? Who wants to be average?" (Rose 186) The article by Rose comes across as a narrative making it harder to get into as a reader because of the extensive detail with no interesting points that really grasped my attention. However, it does achieve a similar purpose in relation to the trajectory that I created in class. Rose commences to revisit his days in Voc. Ed and to document the going on's of the program and of his peers how they caused him to question aspects of the word around him and its possibilities. Similarly, I created a schooling trajectory outlining the most significant people and events in my life that influenced me in school and also led me to discover and question things about the world such as what I would want to become when I got older. Although the premise for the trajectories were similar, Rose and I clearly went about it in two different ways. I illustrated my schooling trajectory, whereas, his was in the format of an academic narrative. Also, Rose's trajectory was much more in-depth than mines, hence the detailed descriptions of Ken, Ted, Billy and many of the other guys that he knew, whereas, my trajectory was much more quaint- short and simple. The reason behind the differences in our presentation of trajectory could be based upon the purpose for creating the trajectory. It was clear from the very beginning that Rose was using his as a background story to prove that children that are written off by the schooling system can indeed become something- he had a genuine interest and purpose for telling his story. I, on the other hand, just approached the trajectory as any other assignment without much desire to tell my whole life story to my peers which reflected in my work and very brief descriptions. From reading his article, one can tell that Rose really took something with him from his experience at their "Lady of Mercy" by learning from his peers and personal experiences what it was to grow and that everyone has a say in what they choose to become in life no matter the past circumstances. However, to me, the most significant area in the article was Rose's statement "Average? Who wants to be average?" (Rose 186). This quote resonated in my mind from the time that I read it because, to me, in his article Rose was referring to the Voc. Ed program as a way to help the "bottom dwellers" of the schooling system just "survive", "occupy" and "get through" school with the expectation that they would just become average human beings at the very least. The teachers were not innovative in the classroom nor did they push the students to be innovative in their schoolwork because in a sense the school had given up on them already. However, to me, thus far, in his life Rose has achieved goals "above average" which implies that he had a innate desire to want to be something greater than "average"- this quote made that very clear- average just wasn't good enough for Mike Rose and neither is it for me.
![]() This trajectory timeline made me think about how my life as a whole has influenced my school trajectory. Beginning from the top left and moving towards the right, my trajectory timeline focuses on events and people in my life that I found to be both instrumental and inspirational in my schooling.
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