Douglas Giles, PhD
1 min readJun 29, 2022

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Thank you for your question, Daniel, because it draws attention to a concept I need to better explain. The Banking Model is problematic because it assumes that there is only one source of learning. A bank is the holder of money and to get a loan one needs to approach the bank and receive permission from the bankers. Freire uses the analogy to critique education's assumption that only a school holds knowledge and only those who the school approves to teach are allowed to have knowledge. The salient concept in Freire's critique is not about learning from experts but the centralization and power concentration of education. His argument is that every person gains knowledge in life experience and can share that knowledge; so, instead of the Banking Model of only the school and authoritarian teachers controlling education, Freire calls for a collective model of education in which active, rather than passive, learning is practiced and teachers take on the role of facilitators rather than overlords.

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Douglas Giles, PhD
Douglas Giles, PhD

Written by Douglas Giles, PhD

Philosopher by trade & temperament, professor for 21 years, bringing philosophy out of its ivory tower and into everyday life. https://dgilesauthor.com/

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