Exploring Metaphors and Paulo Freire's "Banking Concept of Education"
There are many uses of metaphor; we use them to make sense of the world, to express complex meaning, construct alternatives, organize systematic concepts, invite interaction, and add dramatic effect. There are different types of metaphors, like cognitive for example. Cognitive metaphors use the word “are” and “is”when comparing two things. Schools are prisons, gardens, factories, societies, families; this is an example of a cognitive metaphor. Metaphors as source domains would be like saying, “life is a teacher.”
'Paulo Freire compares two concepts of education, banking and problem-posing. In banking teachers assume students are passive, take all control, determine what will be learned, and "force-feed" information to students. The world is seen as static; students are encouraged to "fit in to" the world as it is. Banking encourages students to accept the world as it is, separates the learner and the learner's consciousness from the world, and so contributes to oppression. In problem-posing, students and teachers carry on a dialogue to teach one another. The world is seen as always in the process of becoming; students are seen as parts of that. Students are therefore active, becoming empowered to criticize the world and so change it. Problem-posing thereby results in the liberation of the students and in the revolution against oppressive social and economic systems. Problem-posing education allows people to develop their human natures fully because it depends on dialogue (communication), recognizes the relationship between people and the world, encourages inquiry, and leads to transformation.'
"We are to regard the mind not as a piece of iron to be laid upon the anvil and hammered into any shape, nor as a block of marble in which we are to find the statute by removing the rubbish, nor as a receptacle into which knowledge may be poured; but as a flame that is to be fed, as an active being that must be strengthened to think and feel–to dare, to do, and to suffer."
– Mark Hopkins, Induction address as president of Williams College, 1836.
