Whitman- "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"

Whitman wrote this poem about a narrator who is listening to an astronomers lecture. The astronomer teaches with proofs, charts, diagrams, figures and such all to help the students understand astrology. Many applauded at his brilliance, yet the narrator felt overwhelmed, sick and tired. All this information thrown at him did not help him learn, it just made him leave. He left to walk by himself and looked up at the perfect stars in awe.

Whitman is demonstrating something about education just as Freire did with the "banking concept." He is showing how a student can't just be told or shown information in a classroom to learn, sometimes he has to get out into nature or emerge himself in the subject. Just looking at information does not ingrain it into his brain like experiencing it does. Freire also had a similar idea, that teachers just give the students information to memorize, not to actually learn or experience. Education sometimes needs charts, proofs, and diagrams but I think that students would be much more prepared for life if they could experience the subjects in their lives, not just look at them.

Was Whitman the narrator?