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Summary: Synopsis
Review: The methodology of the late Paulo Freire, once considered such a threat to the established order that he was "invited" to leave his native Brazil, has helped to empower countless impoverished and illiterate people throughout the world. Freire's work has taken on special urgency in the United States and Western Europe, where the creation of a permanent underclass among the underprivileged and minorities in cities and urban centers is increasingly accepted as the norm.With a substantive new introduction to Freire's life and the remarkable impact of this book by writer and Freire confidant and authority Donald Macedo, this anniversary edition of Pedagogy of the Oppressed will inspire a new generation of educators, students, and general readers for years to come.
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Summary: Freire obituary
Review: The most widely known educator in the world died on May 2, 1997. Paulo Freire leaves a legacy of dogged struggle for democracy, equality, and the social consciousness required to envision and retain a more just world. In his most widely read book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire detailed the role of education as a political force---for either liberation or domination. He argued that the process of liberatory education, reflecting the specific intersections of an educator, a student, and a community, must be a process of unveiling, questioning the central issues of life: work, culture and the construction of knowledge. He opposed his pedagogy to "banking " practices, rote memorization of the teacher's facts, which he insisted only reproduce injustice by aculturing the student to passivity. A critical education, in contrast, assists the students in methods to unravel her world--and the words which hide or expose its realities, While Freire was never able to resolve the shipwreck contradiciton of socialism, critical consciousness versus national economic development, his insistence on the need for new styles of education and leadership, coupled with his own lifetime of activism, leave an indominatable testimony of hope. Most educators want to change the world. Freire did
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Summary: Should Be Required Reading For All Educators
Review: There continues to be a correlation between Brasilian peasants in the 1960s and Americans at the cusp of the 21st century, regardless of what the conservative nay-sayers may crow. I feel that many who are in authority, especially in the highest echelons of state education choose to ignore the cries of those who are suffering under the crush of economic and social oppression in favor of sweetheart business dealings. Freire is not an easy read; he scares 95 percent of undergraduates and requires a lot of thought and reflection to just get an understanding. Once tuned into his ideology (not that a good dictionary is not necessary), his heart and soul comes through in every word. Freire is gone, but there will stil be men and women who humbly follow in his footsteps, even if they cannot completely follow his precepts.
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Summary: Anti-intellectual, poorly written tripe
Review: This book is like some kind of Bible to hard-core Lefties, but I think they must never have actually opened it and read what was inside. Freire wrotes admiringly of Mao's Cultural Revolution and Castro's Cuba, and quotes Lenin as a brother-in-arms. His bottom line seems to be that a pseudo-intellectual "revolutionary leader" like himself is the only sort of person who truly "understands" the "peasants" and can guide them to higher consciousness. The book is almost laughably poorly written, and incredibly pretentious and it doesn't take a genius to realize that it reads like a tract by some self-adoring Latin American left-wing dictator (like Castro) justifying his own grasp on power. A dangerous book, if only because it flaunts its own deep ignorance and if it did fall into the hands of people who didn't know any better they might actually believe some of this garbage.
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Summary: Anti-intellectual, poorly written tripe
Review: This book is like some kind of Bible to hard-core Lefties, but I think they must never have actually opened it and read what was inside. Freire wrotes admiringly of Mao's Cultural Revolution and Castro's Cuba, and quotes Lenin as a brother-in-arms. His bottom line seems to be that a pseudo-intellectual "revolutionary leader" like himself is the only sort of person who truly "understands" the "peasants" and can guide them to higher consciousness. The book is almost laughably poorly written, and incredibly pretentious and it doesn't take a genius to realize that it reads like a tract by some self-adoring Latin American left-wing dictator (like Castro) justifying his own grasp on power. A dangerous book, if only because it flaunts its own deep ignorance and if it did fall into the hands of people who didn't know any better they might actually believe some of this garbage.
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Summary: Innacurate conception of traditonal education
Review: This book presents a highly distorted view of traditional models of education and that view is not neutral in its effects, but very possibly actively destructive, as well intentioned prospective and actual educators seeking to improve the lot in the lives of what I am going to call disadvantaged students abandon more truly "empowering" educational approaches which involve the mastery of basic skills, the learning of all (more than ever) that there is to learn in all fields, and, to be sure, the acquistion of the ability to think critically (and of course for themselves) in favor of the approaches advocated by the author, based on such false conceptualizations as "banking", and even oppression, which may acutally be bankrupting to their students and not empowering at all. It is not that there are not poor, and, extremely and intolerably poor, and disenfranchised people in the world, in all of the many, many varied situations in which they unfortunately exist, children and adults, in urgent need of education that will help them to surmount these problems, it is that Friere's conceptualizations do not really contribute to the solving of their problems ( and there can be as much laughter and joy in the tradtional classroom, if not more...), and may actually be harmful. There is a place for the use of the word "oppressed", but it is not universal, and has no place in the description of the underclass, for which the right kinds of educational (and other) programs continue to be urgently needed, in modern, industrialized, longstanding democracies, such as, the United States of America. Third world and developing nations are another story, but even there, I would argue that what are NOT needed are nontraditional EDUCATIONAL approaches. Further, a more appropriate use of the word "oppressed" would be to apply it to the citizens and inhabitants of countries suffering under totalitarian and (including) Communist regimes!!!What I am saying is that however admirable Friere's goals are, his whole conceptual framework is such, and his approaches such, that they can only be self-defeating. As to something as simple as memorization, there are all SORTS of people against it , and some of these say that it is somehow the opposite of understanding, which is what they say is needed. Sounds good, maybe, but I think they go hand in hand, and that memorization is a necessary tool which should in no case take the place of understanding , but should accompany it, where appropriate. However, what I found most deleterious (and I do mean "deleterious") in Friere's ideas were his use of the term "banking" to describe the inculcation of all of the nececessary knowledge, "oppressor" to descibe the person attmepting to inculcate said knowledge, basic skills, and ability to think critically, and "oppressed" to describe the person attempting to learn these and in need of same. It is not that this book should not be on the reading list, it is that it's glaring and fatal misconceptions and their consequences should be exposed.
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Summary: A truly pernicious book
Review: This is one of those books that is so bad you don't forget it, because it is so misguided and pernicious. Freire thoroughly misreads Hegel and doesn't much understand Marx. It astonishes me that it is still in print: it has the dated quality of a mid-1950s Soviet textbook on Marxism-Leninism and more than a whiff of the arrogance of the messianic monsters who end up as Communist dicators. And the translation is lousy.
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Summary: A truly pernicious book
Review: This is one of those books that is so bad you don't forget it, because it is so misguided and pernicious. Freire thoroughly misreads Hegel and doesn't much understand Marx. It astonishes me that it is still in print: it has the dated quality of a mid-1950s Soviet textbook on Marxism-Leninism and more than a whiff of the arrogance of the messianic monsters who end up as Communist dicators. And the translation is lousy.
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Summary: THESE OTHER one star REVIEWERS ARE BRAINWASHED (oppressed)
Review: This is perhaps one of the best books every written. The author was exhiled for 23 years for writing this book. If our government actually believed that the masses would not only read this but understand this work, it probably wouldn't be available. I would rate this work up there with the great religious doctrines. It is not only spiritual but very enlightening. I am a teacher and very passioante about my profession. The traditional teacher is absurd and should NOT be a transmitter of knowledge. Rather one should be a facilitator, with a student centered curriculum, and a love for humanity. If you are a teacher i would highly recommend To KNow as We are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey by Parker Palmer. If you doubt that we live in a totalitarian government I would check out Noam Chompsky, the comedian Bill Hicks, and start your personal spiritual journey already. (my tone here is one of all smiles, sorry if it comes of rash :) peace)
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Summary: A classic and still so timely.
Review: Time passes, but Paolo Freire's ideas are still basic in development work.
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