Those truly committed to liberation must reject the banking

Hear the prophetic voice of Paulo Freire, teacher of the oppressed and awakener of minds, who declared: “Those truly committed to liberation must reject the banking concept in its entirety, adopting instead a concept of women and men as conscious beings and consciousness as consciousness intent upon the world.” These words resound like a trumpet against the old walls of oppression, for they denounce the false education that treats human beings as empty vessels to be filled with the ideas of others, and they proclaim a higher vision: that true freedom comes when men and women awaken as conscious beings, shaping the world rather than being shaped by it.

The origin of this truth lies in Freire’s work among the poor and oppressed of Brazil. He saw that education was too often a tool of domination, what he called the banking concept: teachers depositing knowledge into passive students as if they were coffers to be filled. In this model, people are robbed of agency, made into objects rather than subjects, taught not to think but to obey. Liberation, he declared, could never be found in such a system. For to be free is not to carry the words of another, but to speak one’s own word into the world.

Consider, O listener, the struggles of enslaved peoples who were denied education. In the American South, laws forbade teaching enslaved men and women to read, for their masters feared that literacy would awaken them to their bondage and stir rebellion. Here we see the banking concept in its cruelest form—not only withholding knowledge but using ignorance as chains. Yet wherever enslaved people secretly learned to read, they became agents of their own liberation. Frederick Douglass, who taught himself letters in secret, later said, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” His life is a living testament to Freire’s truth: education must awaken, not suppress.

Freire’s vision is of education as consciousness intent upon the world—that is, learning not for memorization but for transformation. Students must be invited into dialogue, encouraged to question, to challenge, to connect knowledge with lived reality. In this way, they become more than receivers of information—they become creators of meaning. This is why Freire called education an act of freedom. It is not a transfer of facts, but the awakening of the human spirit to its power to change the world.

Yet his words also carry a warning. Any society that clings to the banking concept ensures that its people remain docile, obedient, and easy to control. When women and men are denied their consciousness, they lose sight of their own capacity for liberation. The oppressor thrives when the oppressed are silenced into passive acceptance. Thus Freire insists that those “truly committed to liberation” must reject such false education entirely, for reform is not enough—the system itself must be remade.

O seeker, the lesson is clear: do not mistake education for the mere transfer of knowledge. True education must be a dialogue that awakens awareness, dignity, and action. To teach is not to deposit but to encounter, to walk beside another in the discovery of truth. To learn is not to memorize but to awaken, to see the world as it is and to imagine how it could be changed.

And what actions must we take? In schools, in workplaces, in communities, practice dialogue rather than domination. Teach and learn as though every voice matters, as though every person carries a spark of truth. Resist systems that reduce you to an object and claim your place as a subject in history, a conscious being intent upon the transformation of the world. Encourage critical thought in yourself and others, for passivity is the seed of oppression, but consciousness is the root of liberation.

Thus remember the words of Paulo Freire: liberation demands the rejection of the banking concept, and the embrace of men and women as conscious beings. This is no small command; it is a revolution of the spirit. For when the oppressed awaken to their power, when they speak their own word, when they live as consciousness intent upon the world, then no tyranny can silence them, and freedom becomes not a dream, but a destiny.