Rating: 
Summary: Praise for Pedagogy of the Oppressed:
Review: "This book meets the single criterion of a 'classic': it has outlived its own time and its author's. For any teacher who links education to social change, this is required reading. Freire remains the most important writer on popular education and surely the virtual founder of the perspective known as Critical Pedagogy." --Stanley Aronowitz"This is truly revolutionary pedagogy." --Ivan Illich "Wherever education is explicitly involved in struggles for equity and justice, Freire's ideas and his books, especially Pedagogy of the Oppressed, will live on." --Herbert Kohl, The Nation "Brilliant methodology of a highly charged and politically provocative character." --Jonathan Kozol
Rating: 
Summary: The pedagogical classic--and controversial....
Review: ....(as the reviews below indicate) precisely because it removes the educator from the authority-from-above position and encourages the enlistment of the student's critical faculties. It's simply wrong to think Freire advocated the abandonment of the usual skills taught to students, or that his concept of "the oppressed" applies only in "Communist" countries (although a lot of people who benefit from how things are would like to think so...this country has a long history of blaming the poor and calling such an attitude "Christian"). That people still defend such intolerant theses in order to justify The System As It Is goes farther to prove Freire's points than Freire did himself (although on occasion he humorously acknowledged this kind of "help"). Freire looked forward to the day when people would understand the poor and the marginalized through THEIR eyes and hearts instead of passing judgment on them or ignoring the social context of their misery....something Jesus was known to be in favor of. But this requires the risk and the labor of giving up a lot of illusions and actually being with these people and imaginatively feeling how they live, and why.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing that 750,000 copies have been sold!
Review: Any reader who has felt the slightest hint of discrimination, any reader who has had to deal with systematic limitations on personal freedom, any reader who has felt rejection by an in-group - all will find Friere's words hitting a sympathetic inner chord. Perhaps this alone explains the continued publication, and popularity of this book. Friere does not write like an academic. His arguments do not unfold in a logical, linear way. His style resembles an evangelical rant in which wave after wave of argument, each more extreme than the last, assaults the reader until defenses are overwhelmed. What does he have to say? His basic contention is that both oppressor and oppressed are controlled by the system, and that only the oppressed can free themselves. This thesis rests upon five presuppositions. First, Friere is commited to an anthropological philosophy that identifies the ontological vocation of all human beings, that is, "to be a Subject who acts upon and transforms his world, and in so doing moves toward ever new possibilities of fuller and richer life individually and collectively." This thinly veiled theology is central to all that Friere writes, even though this exaltation of self-actualization is in direct conflict with the basic presuppositions of most world faiths. For example, many Christians and Muslims understand obedience to be their ontological vocation. Secondly, Friere argues that History is a problem to be solved. Again, this presupposition seems antithetical to major thought systems that see balance, suffering, or familial devotion to be the essence of human existence (Taoism, Buddhism, and Confuscianism, respectively). Thirdly, Friere is quite critical of western societies and capitalism in general. (I counted 26 of 88 footnotes citing Hegel, Marx, Mao, Che Quevera, Castro, or Lenin). While his criticisms may be worth considering, reduction of western society to technological assistance seems short-sighted. Fourthly, Friere believes that every human being is capable of critical, dialogical encounters. While I personally applaud this assertion, as well as the priority Friere places on the dialogical process, observation of human interactions is not particularly supportive of this contention. Many people seem to have little patience or interest in the self-discovery required by genuine dialog. Fifthly, Friere is committed to a communal, rather than individual, approach to liberation. There is obvious strength in numbers; however, a communal approach seems inconsistent with his ontological vocation. How is one to radically pursue self-actualization without compromising with in-group limitations in a communal context? In the final analysis, Friere is just as patronizing of the oppressed as any aristocracy. He asserts that the oppressed must be led to think more critically, they must have their consciousness raised, and they must be persuaded to take action together. He does not denounce violence, and he disregards patterns of competition and dominance which seem endemic to humanity. He is guilty of demonizing western societies, deifying "the people," and arguing for a socialist ideology without admitting he does so. This was a stimulating read, but not an important book. I recommend it only to those who enjoy arguing with an author.
Rating:
Summary: Mandatory Reading
Review: As a primary elementary school teacher in San Diego, I think this book should be mandatory reading for all incoming educators. It will liberate your thought and focus you on your mission: to teach as one with the community. "Banking" is out!
Rating:
Summary: The education "'bible" of/for the next millennium.
Review: As Freire makes it clear, the "Oppressed", as far as learning and growth are concerned, are not only the disenfranchised but the elite as well. Anyone who hears and responds to the call of service in the extrication of human consciousness from the oblivion of fear, ignorance and greed to the realization of freedom, self-realization, ordinary imperfect reality (and a few other pleasant experiences, chockful of collective joy and progress) will be very happy to have this book. As a (current) teacher of incarcerated adolescents and adults on Rikers Island, New York City - I know that Paulo Freire speaks the truth - and that his so-called abstract theories (by self-involved, rationalizing, "thinking and writing for that next grant" pandering intellectuals) are rooted in the concrete realities of the human condition. Thus, they are catalysts for concrete results in discovery, surprise, laughter and joyful learning (for both student/teachers and teacher/students) in my jailhouse classroom.
Rating:
Summary: Such An Important Work
Review: As someone who does grassroots community work, I found this book to be amazingly helpful and absolutely invaluable. The book articulates so much of that which I see every day, but was unable to articulate. Although much of Freire's work involved working with illiterate adults, the principles outlined here are applicable to anyone and everyone who is or who is concerned with ending oppression. I think any educator, social worker, organizer...well, really almost anyone who is interested in ending injustice should read this.
Rating:
Summary: Such An Important Work
Review: As someone who does grassroots community work, I found this book to be amazingly helpful and absolutely invaluable. The book articulates so much of that which I see every day, but was unable to articulate. Although much of Freire's work involved working with illiterate adults, the principles outlined here are applicable to anyone and everyone who is or who is concerned with ending oppression. I think any educator, social worker, organizer...well, really almost anyone who is interested in ending injustice should read this.
Rating:
Summary: Too abstract
Review: Freire was a brilliant thinker, and his ideas about education and society are quite relevant; the main flaw with this book however, is one glaring contradiction--Freire seems to be completely ignoring his own proposal that ideas should be more accessible to the masses. The concepts and their explanations found within Pedagogy of the Oppressed, at least in its English translation, are worded so crypticly that one cannot simply read the book. One must thoroughly analyze every single explanation before the concepts can be grasped, and as far as I am concerned, anyone who argues the contrary is absolutely wrong. And while it is true that complex, abstract explanations are often needed to convey such esoteric ways of thinking, I believe that this book could have been made much more accessible to the masses. This is not for everyone. Although the subject interests me, the book simply wasn't an exciting read.
Rating: 
Summary: A Marxist Primer?
Review: Freire, or more accurately those in this country who advocate this book, would have us believe that there is some significant connection between illiterate Brazilian peasants of the 1960s and 21st century Americans. "Farfetched" is inadequate to describe this false analogy. Freire's Marxist agenda has failed historically and is intellectually bankrupt, yet today's zealots refuse to give up the fight to reduce us all to the same pathetic level of struggling mediocrity. Marxism is dead. Let's leave Freire and other such fellow travelers behind and move on.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely the wrong approach
Review: I read it allright, and, although I did not read it that recently, it was enought to disuade me from reading anything else of his volutarily. I'm so glad I wasn't educated remotely the way he proposes!! I actually learned something; I'm actually glad that I did--and in my more serious moments, I was at the time. The idea that there's something fundamentally wrong with the traditional teacher (and educational system) as transmitter of knowledge is absurd. Yes, this includes the teaching of appropriate skills, yes, this includes teaching students to think for themselves, and yes, this even includes the inculcation of values--and no that is not oppression unless it occurs in a Communist or totalitarian state, and then it may be to whatever extent it is in that particular state. If I had children (my former spouse and I are divorced), I would never let anyone like this teach them! To me, THAT would constitute oppression of THEM becaus THEY would NOT be getting the education they needed and deserved !!!
| 
