The Freedom of Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Freedom of Education - Essay Example Foucault calls this concept of mental change â€Å"panopticism†. The main key to this concept is to build a mechanism which would be able to suppress and control people’s minds and thoughts in order to make all we feel happy. As a result of this concept, social institutions, such as schools, prisons, and hospitals, were created. In an essay called â€Å"The â€Å"Banking† Concept of Education† by Paulo Freire, the idea of â€Å"panopticism† is intruding into an educational process, where children are treated and educated as â€Å"robots†, where the independent way of thinking is totally prohibited. In an ancient world, people were always thinking about the perfectly governed city which they called Utopia. This city of state could be primitive and simple but at the same time one of perfect happiness and fulfillment. Today a perception of a perfect governed city was slightly changed. Michel Foucault, who was one of the world’s leading intellectuals, gives us his own point of view regarding a definition of Utopia. In order to make this world more positive and decent, â€Å"some bunch of people† should build a machine that would control and even change people’s ways of thinking, and once this creation is built, the evolution of thoughts completely depend on it (Foucault, M 210-213). According to Bentham’s point of view, that machine would be a perfect key to manipulating the educational training of people. He calls this creature Panopticon, which is the architectural figure, the purpose of which is to observe and control people from the side (Bentham 213-214). The main point of this structure is that the inmate must never know whether he is being looked at during any one moment, but he must be sure that he may always be so (Foucault 215). This perfect concept of control gives the opportunity to create a society where there are no crimes, violence, or child abuse; where all people are happy and love each other.