Gardner vs. Freire

The Bank Concept by Paul Freire

"Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat. This is the “banking” concept of education. In which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits" (1).

The Multiple Intelligence Theory by Howard Gardner 

This theory consists of seven different intelligence's. This means that every student has strengths and weaknesses and can learn, process, memorize, and understand in different ways. The seven intelligence's are visual/spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, and logical/mathematical. 

I personally have always been a BIG fan of the multiple intelligence theory and that is why I chose to discuss about Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligence theory. Throughout my entire college education, Gardner and his theory of the seven different intelligence's have always been a great topic of discussion. When I become a teacher, I know that I will follow this theory because every child does learn in a different way, and every child does have their strengths and weaknesses. For instance, I am very hands on and I work well working with actual objects, so I am very bodily-kinesthetic. However when it comes to logical/mathematical, I am completely lost. I hate math and I always have. I never found easier ways for myself to learn in math UNLESS we were using blocks, or some sort of objects to help me visualize and play with. 

As for Gardner accepting Freire's theory? I don't think so. I think that they are complete OPPOSITE. Freire's banking concept is very strict and to the point. He says that education is basically teachers teaching this content, and the students are just memorizing the facts, but not actually going in depth. Freire uses the example "four times four is sixteen", and the students will memorize that the answer is sixteen, but they do not know why the answer is sixteen. I feel as if this theory is basically saying that students are becoming robots, just memorizing information and repeating it. They aren't actually going in depth as to why things are the way they are.

Gardner is completely different because he discusses so many different ways students can learn. If they use their strengths to learn, the information won't just be facts that they memorize and repeat. The information will be in depth because they will be learning the way they want to learn which will have the students more engaged. If a student is more engaged in their work they are willing to go more in depth with what they are learning. 

Overall, I agreed with Freire's theory because I think the school systems are becoming more like this with all the assessment testing and how they are teaching information. Do I like Freire's theory and do I hope this changes? Yes, of course. Schools should be more like Gardner's theory and they should be more open to theories and concepts like this.