Matheny 1

Kaitlin Matheny

Prof. Enos

ENG 111.W03

October 23, 2017

Climate Within the Classroom

Many are aware that problems exist within the structure of education. More importantly,

how education is incorporated into the classroom. Modern educators are required to enforce a

concept of Common Core. In other words, a set standard of educational goals within

Mathematics and English language arts which outline what level a student should be at by the

end of the school year. The issue with that being Common Core not leaving room for

individualization towards each different recipient within the classroom. This creates a climate

that does not openly welcome cultural or learning differences. Elaboration will follow through

the articles: The Banking Concept of Education by Pablo Freire, Language: Teaching New

Worlds/New Words by bell hooks, Story Skeletons by Robert Schank, and Transformative

Learning: Theory to Practice by Jack Mezirow.

In The Banking Concept of Education by Pablo Freire, Freire discusses the banking

concept. First, he gives a little background story where there is always a narrating subject (the

teacher) and listening objects (the students). No matter what the subject being narrated is, it lacks

a certain meaning; it is talked about in a motionless and divided way. The narrating objects job

being to expel, or deposit, so to speak, their topic of narration out onto their listening objects in

such manner that they, the listening objects, lose focus of what the actual meaning of the content

is. Freire states Four times four is sixteenthe student records, memorizes, and repeats [that]
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phrase without perceiving what four times four actually means (1). This being the banking

concept. Rather than creating the ideal climate in a classroom, it throws the material out to its

audience and expects, as Common Core expects, them to actually retain all information, when no

real memorization takes place. Nothing they are given has any more meaning than knowing it

for the test.

Alternatively, in The Banking Concept of Education by Pablo Freire, Freire goes on

to suggest a more likely successful approach: problem posing. Problem posing embraces

everything the banking concept is not; communication and consciousness; the ability to be aware

of not only the intent of the object at hand, but of the object itself. The learning process is no

longer the narrating subject and the listening object scenario. It is now an equilibrium between

both the teacher and the student with both parties a part of the learning process. Men and women

are no longer just objects, but are something becoming. Even though unfinished and raw, they

are still able to find who and what they are in order to build a better future (9). Problem posing as

a form to educate allows the narrating and listening objects switch between roles and learn

together. Doing so creates a more pliable atmosphere, where the classroom is given opportunity

to shape to the individual differences presented within. Even in relation to Common Core,

problem posing combined with Common Core at least would allow some type of freedom

between the two positions.

Moreover, Language: Teaching New Worlds/New Words by bell hooks discusses how

those that come into the foreign world of English, are expected to accept it into their lives. They

are to take it on and not even consider using the language that comes naturally to them, whether

it be a whole other language or just a broken piece of English. Controversially, the ones native to

English are less accepting to the idea that there are other languages out there and to break from
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it, in whatever form it may be, is an unacceptable action to do. There is no one best language.

Each and every one differs within itself. Having one primary language within the classroom and

not welcoming other forms of even just one language, limits the ability for students to be

comfortable in the classroom. This limitation hinders their ability to freely express themselves

unimpeded from the high-standard boundaries set before them. A classroom is a place for an

individual to grow, not to be imprisoned by anothers ideas of how educating must go.

Furthermore, Story Skeletons by Robert Schank discusses when individuals tell about

an event, it is shaped to fit around a familiar story skeleton (the selected stories or event

chosen to be told, commonly shaped around a familiar outline, often lacking all of the pertinent

information) (130). What is read and stories that are told, the way one analyzes them, is based on

opinion and perception. No one story will be told or perceived one exact way by two different

people, not even by ten different people. No two minds think exactly the same. Meaning,

education having this strict standard of having to accomplish this or that by whatever deadline is

shaped around the skeleton of necessity to survive. The teachers conform to the skeleton to keep

their job, while the students accept that version into their lives due to the standard that they must

absorb such skeletons in order to pass the class, go on to the next grade/level, and repeat. The

restriction of this educational skeleton demands that the shape of the course stays within the

given skeleton, instead of having a small fence of free range chickens which have the ability to

roam and grow as an individual, rather than being held within one form.

In another view point, Jack Mezirow with Transformative Learning: Theory to

Practice, discusses how within adult education, there are different processes, but not all

processes work best. He discussed how Jurgen Habennas declares that learning can be

instrumental, impressionistic, normative, or communicative (88). Instrumental being the

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manipulation of others and your environment to improve your own performance. Impressionistic

being the enhancement of how others perceive you. Normative being the learning based around

common values and a normative sense of entitlement (88). Communicative being two or more

people coming together to understand the meaning of an interpretation (88). According to

Mezirow, the communicative approach is the one that should be used. Mezirow states that

learning requires that new information [needs to] be incorporated by the learner into an already

well-developed symbolic frame of reference (91). Mezirow addresses how different approaches

lead to different outcomes. Knowing that not every individual adapts or interacts with incoming

stimuli, allows for each of said approached to take root and expand within the classroom, making

it possible for individual growth.

Naming the communicative way the most admirable approach for learning as adults is a

reminder about the similar ideas in which education and learning can have different forms of

delivery. Also, it reiterates which approach is the better form, much like Paulo Freire in The

Banking Concept of Education discusses. hook would agree that allowing an arrangement for

communication to happen, or something like problem posing, would disperse more comfort

between contrasting languages. Allowing such diversity in structure, provides an ample

opportunity for students to be withdrawn from their realm of story skeletons, and eliminate the

need to shape themselves around one concept, one language, one common story, in order to

succeed.

School should be a place where one is able to be comfortable within their own skin,

within their own boundaries of what makes them unique from the rest. Adding a comfort factor

to education could increase the likelihood of one not just banking the information being

deposited to them, but actually retaining it for future use. Adding the ability to be able to choose
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against conformity of language and others be accepting of that difference, could increase the

likelihood of one being more comfortable. Furthermore, instead of strictly shaping a course to a

skeleton like Common Core, education should have a set up like free range chickens that

encourage the development of each individual to reach their maximum potential with a course

flexible to do so. Included in all that, the climate within education should allow space for

conversation, in which all parties come together with an understanding of the learning topic.

Conclusively, Education cannot be shaped to enhance one group, one classroom; no one

classroom will perceive, receive, or interact with the information the same way.
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Works Cited

Freire, Pablo. The Banking Concept of Education. pp. 1-12.

hooks, bell. Language: Teaching New Worlds/New Words. Exploring Connections

Learning in the 21st Century, Pearson Education, 2016, pp. 55-60.

Mezirow, Jack. Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice, Exploring Connections

Learning in the 21st Century, Pearson Education, 2016, pp. 86-92.

Schank, Robert. Story Skeletons. Exploring Connections Learning in the 21st Century,

Pearson Education, 2016, pp.128-140.