Does Education Produce Automatons or Enable Critical Consciousness?

We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone

Hey! Teachers! Leave than kids alone!

All in all it’s just another brick in the wall.
All in all you’re just another brick in the wall.

– Extract from Pink Floyd. Another Brick in the Wall. 1979.

See the original music video here:

Does education produce automatons or enable critical consciousness? Draw upon ideas within Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” and Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall.

Here’s the answer.

For a very long time, the education industry has been producing automatons – where educated people act more in a mechanical fashion and do not question things around them.

Before elaborating on my ideas, here’s a brief explanation of the ideas proposed in Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” and Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall.

Paulo Freire, Brazilian educator is the author of “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”; here are his views on critical consciousness.

Also read: “Another Brick In The Wall” (Roger Waters/Pink Floyd): Here’s the real meaning of the lyrics.

Over the years, there has been evolvement in teaching strategies; techniques such as immersive learning is quite effective in teaching students. However, most of these methods are still accessible to only certain sections of the society.

Also, many grownup students are unable to relate what is taught in the class to the outside world, they are not aware what they are good at, and what they want to become.

So, unfortunately, majority of the students still continue to be part of an education system that churns out automatons who are able to operate efficiently only in familiar environments and under predetermined instructions.