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Most of us, parents, teachers, and students alike, fail to see that suppression takes place behind the closed doors of America's c lassrooms. Throughout the United States, the so-called land of the free, tea chers continue to use and abuse their authority in tyrant-like proportions. I call this corruption that dehumanizes our youth "the corrupted cycle of pe dagogy". I have divided this ignorance-promoting cycle into three steps: 1) primitive education, 2) deprivation, and 3) the crossroad. Primitive educati on and inadequate teaching methods like the one exemplified in Paulo Freire' s "Banking Concept of Education" continue to impose ignorance to our youth t hroughout the nation. Deprivation takes place when truly effective methods o f education like the one presented in Mary Louise Pratt's "Arts of the Conta ct Zone" are continually withdrawn and ignored from grammar school, high sch ool, and even college curriculums only to promote and practice the most elem entary of non-interactive education. As a society, we continually fail to se e the negative effects of this suppression that our youth never cease to fac e. Susan Griffin's "Our Secret" shows us the profound effects of living a li fe imposed on by a superior authority. She vividly shows the trials and trib ulations an individual must face and the critical choice they must make when he or she finally reaches her personal crossroad. Our society's future lies in the hands of our youth and if we don't stop this widespread epidemic of pedagogical ignorance as we know it, then our society will inevitably crumbl e. "What is Hanoi?" I mumbled while stuffing a frosty donut down my mouth in fr ont of the television while one of contestants from Jeopardy simultaneously responds with the same answer. Alex Trebek promptly responds, "That is corre ct!" I pump my fist in the air for the fifth consecutive time and boast to m y siblings who once again had failed to match my knowledge of trivial questi ons. That glorious day was a week before I learned that I had nothing to be proud about. The truth was, I did not know anything essential about Hanoi Ci ty other than it is the capital of modern day Vietnam. I knew nothing of its history, geography, or even culture. In fact, the only reason I so vividly recall the city of Hanoi will shock many of you. My world history teacher si mply made us memorize the capital cities of various countries in Asia and Ha noi happened to be one of them. Now, I can't help but look back and see how the American education system has failed me. Instead of holding my own in ca se one day a conversation among peers about Vietnam comes up, I'll have no c hoice but to remain quiet like an ignorant fool because my world history tea cher in high school decided not to bother having even a slightly in-depth in tellectual class discussion about Vietnam. Instead, I walked away from class that day having memorized the capital cities of half of the countries in As ia and not knowing anything else about them. I had become another addition t o the countless of victims that have fallen to the "banking" concept, the fi rst of the three steps of the corrupted cycle of pedagogy.
Approximate Word count = 2150
Approximate Pages = 8.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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