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Education as the key?It is often assumed that education is the key to dealing with this problem; it is true that we often give our educational experts the greatest respect when hey deal with the great problems of those who do not fit into society. In order to deal with the problems of oppressed groups we can focus on access to information. This can be seen as the need to be aware of all the information and knowledge which the hearing person has. But such knowledge is based on hearingness. If a deaf person tries to access this, all she or he is doing is adopting hearing knowledge. This type of situation is made worse by a general view that education is system of banking. The aim of the teacher is to give to the student information, facts or skills which would not otherwise be there. These are seen as some kind of deposit which will have to be repaid to society at some later date. In Freires view this is not an appropriate concept to use. Education is negotiated and demands an openness in the teacher as well as the learner. The aim is that the student can become a being in himself or herself, rather than a clone of the teacher. This is very hard because the stated aim of the educator is to integrate and to facilitate access to the hearing norms. When the child becomes indistinguishable from the other children then there is success. |
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