Seeking Engagement Beyond the Lecture Hall

I don’t think there is ever a right or wrong way to teach because everyone learns things completely differently. The "Banking Concept" of Education is a way of teaching where students are like empty banks waiting for teachers to deposit knowledge into their minds. Teachers stand up front and do all of the talking and students just listen, without really thinking for themselves. Freire’s banking concept of education rings true to me. According to him, learning should resemble a dialogue in which students and professors exchange ideas and gain knowledge from one another. Students will be able to think better and ask good questions. Paulo Freire states, “...the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits,” (Freire 87). When I was in high school, my teachers taught school in the most boring ways. They would lecture for an hour and not engage us in any way at all, causing the information to go in one ear and right out of the other. I found school so boring and useless that I thought about not going to college because I just never seemed to enjoy or understand school like the rest of my friends. One thing I am very passionate about is soccer, and I knew that going to college to play would help me pursue my dreams so I sucked it up and decided on more schooling. When I got to UNCW, my first college before transferring here to Loyola, I met one of the best people/professors of my life. Every day, class would be held outside at a random new location. You don’t have to bring a bookbag, paper, pencils, anything. It was all about being engaged and participating, we would people-watch and interact with random people on the quad, just getting used to engaging with other people and understanding others' body language, etc. This may not have been a typical English class, but I learned more in this fun class than in almost half of high school. I will remember this class and teacher for the rest of my life.