Blerd Dad: Experiencing the banking system of education in Jamaica…

This week I want to talk about “having experienced the banking system of education in Jamaica, and what I would change”  I have experienced the banking system from birth and even while a grad student thanks in no small part to the education system which was formulated during the industrial revolution and the time of enlightenment (Robinson, 2010). As one would expect the needs of the society and its people have changed radically since then, but education is still viewed unfortunately through the myopic lens of the Industrial revolution (Robinson, 2010).

The first major experience where I was cognizant of the fact that someone was attempting to fill me with their narration (Friere, 2005 p.71) was in grade two.

The first major experience where I was cognizant of the fact that someone was attempting to fill me with their narration (Friere, 2005 p.71) was in grade two. The teacher at the time was Ms. Gordon a moderately attractive woman of medium brown hue who had the preposterous notion in her head that the children in front of whom she stood, knew very little of Jamaica and the world. She was full of wild antics, theatrics and was very animated. In retrospect she clearly believed Ayers myth number six, that good teacher are good performers (p. 14).

I remember her pompous smile and wild antics as she told us of the islands in the Caribbean where it snowed. The sheer lunacy of what she spoke instantly moved me from being a willing receptacle (Friere, 2005 p.72) to a critical thinker, after all, I had spent my few years alive traveling across the Caribbean with my family to most of the Caribbean islands and my father had already taught me the basics of geography and what it meant to live this close to the equator. Everyone else was in awe of her and asking about snow etc. I raised my hand and asked how it was possible to have snow in the Caribbean given our proximity to the equator and that snow can’t exist in this vicinity. Offended clearly that I had rejected her gift of knowledge (p. 72) she asked me if I had ever visited another Caribbean island. I said Yes, which further provoked her. With every answer, her hue changed from brown to light pink to a distinctive maroon red. To cut things short she ran me out of class for lying despite my childlike innocence. It was only after this she came to realize I wasn’t lying since my father was one of the highest-ranking black men on the carnival cruise line of ships and I literally had been to most of the Caribbean islands and the coast of South America. When she ascertained this, we would have these long conferences about the various islands and the coastal areas of South America. Unknown to me at the time and central to the banking concept I never realized that I was educating the teacher (p. 72).  

the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing (p.73).

The other instance where I experienced the banking system was in grade six with Mrs. Williams who in hindsight was the epitome of the Friere’s banker; the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing (p.73). Even seventeen years later this woman is the ultimate expression of what not to be in a classroom. She would come to class and talk after devotion at eight in the morning until class was dismissed around two-thirty in the evening. This woman had the most ludicrous notions not backed by facts and also was clueless in a great many things she thought she knew. In one lesson she taught us that Jamaica was the smallest island in the world, this information was a piece of geography homework in which we were to go home and draw Jamaica and write ten facts about it.

The moment I landed at home and told my father he grimaced. Homework from her and the idiotic utterances always lead to a bounty of research. This was before the popularity of the internet, though we did have dial-up at the time. Through the encyclopedia we went and the geography books. How could she classify Jamaica as the smallest island in the world when the Caribbean was littered with smaller ones? I hated the hours of research at the time, but what my father did was essential to critical thinking “the who, what, when, where and how of things” (Hooks, 2010 p.9) really stayed with me, despite her. Returning to class armed with evidence I caused a massive uproar as I stood my ground and presented my evidence, genuinely shocked she allowed my rejection of her answer though the more meekly receptacles who permitted themselves to be filled were still seen as better and more desirable students (p. 72). 

Despite allowing me this small victory she often refused to hear my answers in class, moving away from students giving answers because I would always have questions and my questions occasionally caused other students to do the same. She hated me because as the banker the only scope she allowed us as students extended only as far as receiving, filing, and storing her deposits (p. 72). The last example I’ll share about the dear old Mrs. Williams was her take on slavery. I should also note that she was a Christian who took her religion to fanatic levels. According to her after depositing in my classmates her rendition of slavery she said the mother of all stupid phrases “We should all be thankful for slavery because it allows us to go to heaven”. Read the statement again and think about a class full of forty-five impressionable minds all descendants of slaves who have been force-fed this white/eurocentric version of Christianity and that bile escaped her mouth. As one would expect my hand shot up and she gave me that look that said; do you ever shut up? The teacher knows everything and the students know nothing (Friere, 2005 p.73). That look kept my hand down for the rest of our time together and reinforced the banking system of education’s ability to annul my creative power (p. 73).

What would I change?

What would I change? Well as outlined in my personal philosophy I believe that “education should be inclusively pedagogic” and as a result, I think that sharing power (p. 248), dialogical professor-student interaction (p. 248), activation of student’s voice (p. 249), utilization of personal narratives (p. 250-51) and faculty-student interaction (p. 247) should be central tenets of effective teaching.

In light of what took place with Mrs. Williams and Ms. Gordon however, another problem with the Jamaican education system is the teacher to student ratio. It’s impossible for one teacher to implement inclusively pedagogic learning based on the conditions available to him/her. Ms. Gordon believed that a good teacher is a good performer and as such, she maintained the attention of the ocean of students through her theatrics. Her willingness to consult with me after our misunderstanding shows that she was genuinely unaware of her students’ individuality and socialization processes. Mrs. Williams on the other hand had deficiencies in knowledge and willingness to learn from her students. If she could have been inclusively pedagogic in its entirety she would have been more open to allowing her students and herself to switch roles to enhance learning. 

In closing, I have experienced the banking system throughout my time in school and what I would change is implementing inclusive pedagogy as a central tenet of all teaching. In addition to this I would also reduce class size to the ideal ratio of one teacher to twenty-five students maximum this would facilitate inclusive pedagogy operating at its optimal level. By assuming through the banking process that students are just hollow receptacles (Friere, 2005 p.72) or Tabula Rasa (Mckeon, 1941 p.47) the teacher is missing out on a wealth of knowledge and experience outside themselves that can not only enhance the classroom learning environment but their very lives and the lives of the children with whose future they have been entrusted.  My philosophy of education and class reduction would solve the banking problem/approach to education and also lead to job creation to enhance not just the individual but society.  

References

Ayers, W. (1993). To teach the journey of a teacher. New York: Teachers College Press.

Freire, P., & Ramos, M. B. (2005). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th-anniversary ed.).

New  York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.

hooks, b. (2010). Teaching critical thinking: practical wisdom. New York: Routledge.

McKeon, R. (1941). The basic works of Aristotle. New York: Random House.

Tuitt, Frank., (year). Realizing a More Inclusive Pedagogy.

Robinson, Ken ., [The RSA]. (2013, September 11). RSA Animate – Changing Education Paradigms [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U&feature=youtu.be

‘ORIGINALLY SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES, 2014‘