In reading "The Banking Concept of Education" from Pedogogy of the Oppresed by Paolo Freire and "Against School" by John Taylor Gatto, I find many similarities. They both talk about the need for school in its current state. They discuss the way it is and question if it is the way that schooling needs to proceed.
Freire writes, "Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiqué and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat.” He then states, “…it is men themselves who are filed away thorough the lack of creativity, transformation, and knowledge in this (at best) misguides system.” It make one wonder how we can improve the educational system. Gatto asked, “Do we really need school? I don’t mean education, just forced schooling…Is this deadly routine necessary? And if so, for what? Don’t hide behind reading, writing, and arithmetic as a rationale…a considerable number of well-known Americans never went through the twelve –year wringer our kids currently go through, and they turned out all right.” He goes on to describe famous people throughout history who were well educated without the traditional system of school, such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln.
As for differences, it is difficult for me to find contrasts other than the fact that Freire stays with the original subject area while Gatto goes on into more depth that the first author does not expound upon. He also uses other countries as examples which makes it hard to use as a comparison if one author does not cover that subject area.
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