Lately, I’ve been having writer’s block. Actually, that’s a lie. I’ve just become lazy and old. I don’t even write anymore. Technology has made me sedentary and dependent on its ever-evolving offerings. The most writing I partake in nowadays is a casual text messaging with friends and family members using my smartphone. Funny how a “smartphone” can turn you into a “not so smart human.” Honestly, I’m not even sure I remember how to write anymore. I’m actually struggling to even put my thoughts down for this post. Perhaps I lost my ability to write, or maybe I never actually was a good writer.
In college, my English professor once critiqued my writing style as being “sophisticated.” I like that word. It makes me feel like James Bond or more specifically Sean Connery, but it certainly doesn’t feel that way anymore. Perhaps, I am the perfect example of the Dunning-Kruger effect, where I overestimate my abilities or possibly underestimate them? Either way, it doesn’t matter. I’ll let you be the judge. Below is the paper I wrote when applying to Berkeley. Enjoy . . .
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Can You Enlighten Me?
by Asim Kaleem
A student skims through the pamphlet from a prospective college that describes “Life on campus”. He feels the shakes, fears, and the huge uncertainty as he is faced with a life altering decision. He recalls a line from some play he read in high school and asks himself, “To go, or not to go to: that is the question.” He hopes that being enrolled in a college will make him more knowledgeable and the experience will change the course of his future for the better. On the other hand, college could simply be a more expensive version of high school. Paulo Freire, a highly influential theorist of education, believed that, “Knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other” (Freire 241). Though enrolling in a college or university is indeed a great step towards developing the mind and the course of ones future, merely placing yourself at the front lines of meaningless verbal wars is not a guarantee to enlightenment. Thus, in the learning process, whether it be, “banking” or “problem posing”, a student must approach his role with a sense of seriousness.
Freire’s proposal, if utilized properly, gives ground to a higher level of thinking and develops the learner’s problem solving ability. Moreover, he argues that the educational system is suffering from a “narration sickness” called the “banking concept” of education that promotes memorization of words and ideas without cognition of the deeper intended meaning. Freire points this out when stating, “Words are emptied of their concreteness and become a hollow, alienated, and alienating verbosity” (Freire 240). He then proposes a contrasting style that promotes a more idealistic environment for learning called the “problem posing” concept. Although his proposal seems adequate, for the “problem posing” concept to function, students must thoroughly process the information presented to them. Still many students respond to the “problem-posing” very casually, only giving the problems presented to them very little thought.
Those students approaching problems frivolously abate the cultivation of cognition. For in “problem posing” education, the student must present his counter-argument from his point-of-view, or he risks misinterpretation of the verbiage presented. Misinterpretation results in a stagnant motion. Where the person presenting the cognizable verbiage is validated to move on, believing that the significant other has agreed or understood the validity of his or her point of view. Then both the teacher and student will stagnantly move to another cognizable object without developing trust, understanding, or a solid foundation for future interactions. It makes me wonder how many readers understand me thus far. For movement without true insight is similar to running on a treadmill in an enclosed room without windows. Thus, it is important that the student present his or her point-of-view, even if it is one of misunderstanding and confusion. A misunderstood moment, if voiced with a sense of seriousness, welcomes more interaction that penetrates ones state of consciousness and begins to resolve the idea of stagnant movement. For learning is not the product of confinement, it cannot be achieved in absolute solitude, as Freire describes: “Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory-tower isolation, but only in communication” (Freire 244). This sense of seriousness helps the processor break the belts and workings of robotic thinking, which the casual thinker cannot comprehend. It opens doors that give way for the human element to flourish through experiencing and discovering the world through the processors point-of-view and not resulting in a casualty of thought.
Though, one may argue that a teacher or system should be held accountable for the advancement of the students thinking, and that the ideas and facts should and can be presented in a clear and comprehensible fashion. However, that is not how the real world operates. Upon closer examination, it seems though that the more confusing and hard the vocation, the more money and status is to be made. Likewise, ideas and mental growth in the real-world are achieved so by forcing the students to think harder by proposing challenging assignments and subjecting them to intellectual lectures and debates lead by experts in professional industries. Furthermore, as an assurance of a higher level of performance, the system proposes certain disciplinary actions for students who do not meet the standards measured by the authorities. In actuality, the teaching method described above is a mild form of the “banking concept”, as the student is forced to do something by the teacher, requiring the student to think and act unwillingly. Therefore, it is also an act of oppression which Freire describes, “Thus they react almost instinctively against any experiment in education which stimulates the critical faculties and not content with a partial view of reality but always seeks out the ties which link one point to another and one problem to another” (Freire 242). Thus, the teacher and student have to be in agreement with one another and share the responsibility of learning together, not in isolation.
Indeed, having a great teacher can challenge a student, posing enlightening problems which may greatly contribute to the student’s overall educational experience. For example, a teacher may prescribe a substratum assignment that, if comprehended by the participant, appertains to the interpretation of the proceeding assignments. Yet this can only be effective if the student is mentally engaged in solving the problem at hand. A student not approaching the assignment with a sense of seriousness will miss the significance of the assignment, which could result in a snow ball effect that reaches far and deep into the minds of both student and teacher. In the latter case, the student begins to develop mental excuses for his failure to cognize the given information. The teacher, though seemingly in control of the situation, also begins to form excuses for letting the student get away with his or her superficial reasoning and lack of participation. Now this is not a theoretical situation; this poor interaction and lack of understanding is abundant in a lot of our institutions and unfortunately in many of us.
Furthermore, without a sense of seriousness, the student runs the risk of becoming a passive learner only to later develop conflicting feelings. This state of passivity leads one to unknowingly own projected thoughts and ideas of others who are more thorough in their analysis. It can be compared to the act of listening to a song that has an enjoyable beat but the lyrics say something that the listener feels strongly against. Since the beat strikes a cord in the listener, he passively listens and memorizes the accompanying words until they are subconsciously embedded in his mind, but fails to recognize the true meaning of the song. Freire indirectly acknowledges this state of passivity in is work and states; “Populist manifestations perhaps best exemplify this type of behavior by the oppressed, who, by identifying with charismatic leaders, come to feel that they themselves are active and effective” (Freire 245). In this practice of passive learning, the movement of society and the individual takes a turn in the wrong direction; for there are no new ideas or problems presented by the student to be solved collectively, there is only an acceptance of ideologies from the past.
It is no surprise why so many people want to earn an academic title and undergo the process of education. Although, the student embarking on this journey, (after browsing through the information packet of a prospective university), who aspires to open his mind and understand the realities of the world, will still be overwhelmed by the abstruse process. He must respond by continually analyzing the synthesized analysis from others and approach the whole act of learning with an active and fertile mind. Freire describes, that “Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students” (Freire 241). So, what does that mean to me? Simply, that there is no revolutionary system or teacher that can show the truths of the world. The teacher can only befriend and accompany the student on the journey, experiencing the world together through meaningful exchanges. Therefore, learning is a movement we must awaken in ourselves and each other by embracing both roles. For in this process where the teacher is teaching and the students are learning, every moment is an opportunity to learn and to teach one another. To deeply, profoundly, and logically understand this concept, one must experience it with all of himself, not through passively embracing passages and experiences of others.
Work Cited
Freire, Paulo. “The Banking Concept of Education.” Composing Knowledge.
Ed. Rolf Norgaard. New York: Bedford, 2007. 239-51.