Bored Stiff in English Class-Paolo Freire
...tation, you had to explain this ideas/findings to the teacher. Most of the time, it was your interpretation that was erroneous. She would offer her solution, and that was how you presented your project, hence one could never express his true opinions, because Ms. Crosby told you why, how, and when, based exclusively on her thoughts. Without a doubt, the ideas presented by the students were that of the Professor's. We as students were not called upon to learn, but to "memorize the contents narrated by the teacher." We were not able to express our personal interpretations showing our critical beliefs, because the teacher believed that it was only her voice that was accurate. Ms. Crosby agreed with Freire's assumption that "a person is merely in the world, not with the world or with others; the individual is spectator, not re-creator." These examples justify Freire's essay that state, "Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students and the teacher is the depositor." As students, information, theories, and justifications were somewhat planted in out minds, therefore devoid of our own critical thoughts and elements that we unquestionably need to grow mentally. There are countless solutions to this classroom full of unenthusiastic, sleeping students. Freire states that a problem posing concept is "women and men as conscious beings...” something that "...embodies communication." Through this ingenious concept and dialogue, "the teacher-of-the-students and the students-of-the-teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with student-teachers." This states that there is a Repetto, Page 3 direct relationship and communication level between the teachers and the students, both giving their critically thought opinions while learning from one another. For this specific classroom, a problem posing approach would no longer inhibit creative abilities and stifle the students’ ideas. This advance would include different methods to learning Macbeth. Ms. Crosby could have allowed the students to choose their own groups, topics, and their form of presentation. Through this, the students would select their strongest theory and elaborate upon it in a way that was best suited for them to express. This way, the teacher would be learning from a new light along with the students, who would also be collecting the best theoretical information from their fellow students because they chose to express it in a manner in which they had their most strength. Therefore, "the resulting comprehension tends to be increasingly critical and thus constantly less alienated." In addition, the Professor should have permitted the students to choose which character he/she wanted to act as while reading the play. Ms. Crosby should not have chosen the same students, every day in and out, to act as the same characters. By doing this, she looked upon the students as rather robots or mechanical devices, relaying the words as standardly typed on the pages, and ignoring the opinions and inferences. Allowing the students to choose everyday who they wanted to be in the play let them exercise their minds, wholly "get into" the characters state of mind to understand their place in the story. This way, the students would be critically thinking for all characters, and not be bored stiff. This problem posing assignment ...