One-way education was analogized by Freire as the “banking” concept, clarifying that education with narrative character “becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. … the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits”(260).

One-way education, i.e. the act of teaching without any communication between the teacher and the students, supposes the students as a blank slate, which waits the teacher to draw whatever he or she wants to. The communication between the teacher and the students doesn’t necessarily enlarge the teacher’s scope of knowledge. What the communication does bring about is the response of the students to the knowledge, which helps the teacher constantly adjust the knowledge or the pedagogical methods of organizing the teaching process in order to stimulate the students to be more productive.

This analogy reminds me another analogy, instead of depositing money in a bank, we should turn education into an investment. We “invest” capitals in the students, instead of just “storing” the deposits in them, we stimulate their creativity to make more money and at the same time, the invested, whether it is a company or a student, will become more and more powerful in productivity. The bank deposit will bring you nothing but a little interest. However, if we invest the money in either stock market or a business company, the income will enrich both the company and the investor. “Knowledge,” similar to the investment of money, as Freire says, “emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other” (260).

People who are educated without communication will be lack of creativity, transformation and knowledge, just as money deposit into the bank will be the dead money, which got stuck. The process of inquiry can stimulate more creative power in order to gain more knowledge, just as the process of investment can stimulate more productivity of the invested company in order to produce more income.

Moreover, even the banking system is under the way of changing. A few days ago in Cathay Bank, I came across an advertising poster, on which a glass bottle was fully stored with golden coins. And the words on the picture read, “If this is your idea of a bank account, open a real account today”, which means bank can do more than just storing money, and it also provides some more ways to multiple your money through investing.

Works Cited

Freire, Paulo. “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education”. Ways of Reading. Eds. David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. 6th ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2002. 259-270.