I want a teacher not a banker

Have you all ever felt like your teacher was interacting with you the same way that a bank-clerk would? This has happened to me. This is called the “Banking” concept of education, and it is a theory by Paulo Freire. Throughout his theory, Freire explains how teachers can be like bank-clerks, in that their transactions/interactions with their students are solely what he refers to as ‘deposits’. Right when I read the sentence “The student records, memorizes, and repeats these phrases without perceiving what four times four really means…”, I instantly connected with this concept. What most specifically sparked my interest was the fact that his example was four times four, and what does that really mean. This is because I connected with this about my math class from my first semester of college. I came into college with the mindset that it would help me figure out where I would like to go after I graduate and what I would like to do for work. With this in mind, I thought that my classes would start to focus more on true understanding as well as real life applications, no matter which class. I am an engineering major, so I thought my classes like math and physics would start to teach me how I can apply those skills into something such as a job in engineering. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and my math class last semester followed the “Banking Concept” of education. The relationship I had with my math teacher was perfectly comparable to that of a bank-clerk. A term that Freire uses is to “memorize mechanically”, and that could not be a more accurate description of how I felt in that class. I felt that every day my teacher would just ‘deposit’ new formulas and methods into my ‘bank-account’. We never answered the question of “Why?”. I know that in the future it is unlikely there is a job where I could sit at a desk and solve math problems all day long, so this is why I want to know more. I want to know how to apply these methods better and what they truly mean. I don’t want a ‘bank-clerk’ to tell me information every day. I want a teacher to help me understand and process new information. I guess for now I’ll just hope that as I get further into college this will come...