Chomsky via Leigh Blackall:
“On the contrary, our so-called democratic schools are based on an instrumental skills-banking approach that often prevents the development of the kind of thinking that enables one to ‘read the world’ critically and to understand the reasons and linkages behind facts.”
I’m not sure I would trust Chomsky’s view on how to “read the world”, given his proclivity to disregard any evidence that contradicts his theory of everything, and his over-reliance on weak, un-interrogated sources.
The phrase “skills-banking”, on the other hand, is a delightful word that reminds us that Friere’s warnings can be applied as directly to skills teaching as rote memorization. A skills focus can be a powerful antidote to what ails education. But left uncritiqued it can become just as oppressive as education by rote.
There’s really two camps here in the skills movement, and they are not as aligned as some people think.
Hapgood 