The Education System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Education System - Essay Example What measures are we willing to take in order to achieve it What system are we going to introduce to our education so that we could produce individuals fit for this society Are we willing to sacrifice and violate some values such as the values of privacy and freedom just to attain this so called "perfect society" And if we do, will it be worth it What would have become of us as human beings Education is one way to implement discipline or a desired behavior of any sort. After all, it is undeniable that a nation's education system greatly influences the kind of citizens it has. The people's discipline, values, and way of living are all affected by the kind of education they were able to attain, since we all know that, before being exposed to the real world where we have to work, we have to go through education. Unless we are home schooled and aside from outside influences, we learn everything else in school: manners, culture, academics. If the education system of a society can be altered and controlled by one person, there is a great chance that he will gain control over all of the society. In Paulo Freire's "banking theory of education" from his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, he argues that society uses education to avoid people from intervening in what they have created as the perfect society. They have come up with a system that does not allow students to think; rather they are only receptacles of teachings or deposits. He said that "the banking concept of education regards men as adaptable, manageable beings. The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world". In this concept, students receive what the teachers give. They don't have a perception or an opinion of their own. They are only to record, memorize, and repeat without thinking. (Freire, Chapter 2). This way, it will be sure that no one stands up to change anything in the system. "The more completely they accept the passive role imposed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them". Thus his idea of the students being the "oppressed" and the education system being oppressive because the system has removed the students' ability to think creatively and at the same time, be contributors to the learning process so they don't only listen. Michael Foucault's concept of Panopticism, on the other hand, introduces a mechanism that involves instruments, techniques, and procedures to be able to suppress and control people's minds to make sure that discipline "reigns over society as a whole" (Foucault, Part 3: Discipline). Although this is a completely separate idea, the concept of gaining power and control is the same with Freire's "banking concept". In Foucault's book Discipline and Punish, Part Three, he compares panopticism with a plague affected town. The plague can be an illness, or a symbolic disorder of rebellions, crimes, and vagabondage. In order to contain this plague and avoid any "contagions", a system was built to supervise each and every citizen in all their movements. The town was closed and they were prohibited to leave town in pain of death. All events were under surveillance and everything was recorded. From this concept, Foucault discusses a style of architecture from Jeremy Bentham's idea wherein