Freire and and Gatto

Freire and Gatto both share a critical view of the education, claiming that the system and those who enforce it seek to oppress student's potential. They claim that the education system inhibits creativity and free thought by placing importance on memorization and obedience. While both use the problems in education as examples of a greater societal corruption, Gatto focuses most of his writing on criticizing society, while Freire places most of the blame on those who enforce it. Gatto views teachers as simply more victims of the education system, however, Freire states that they are a large part of the problem. This is most likely why Freire's solution is much more specific and directed at educators, why Gatto's is a more broad and abstract concept. Freire calls for a change in the way teachers think about educating their students, while Gatto calls for people as a whole to reevaluate the purpose of education in general. Although not as blatant as Gatto's, larger societal criticisms are evident in Freire's writting as well. Even the "banking concept" seems to imply criticism of capitalist society. Freire's writing, however, is much more optimistic than Gatto's. His criticisms seem to be serious concerns that he believes can be fixed, while Gatto seems to have given up hope on the education system all together and simply wants to rant about it. At one point Gatto asks, "Do we even need school?" Freire and Gatto both point out similar problems in the education system, though have somewhat different views on the causes and solutions for such problems.