Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Rating:
Summary: How does knowledge truly emerge?
Review: What does knowledge contained within the "banking" form of education have to do with the reality of the oppressed? Freire's discussion of this concept brought to mind a passage in Robert Kaplan's book The Ends of The Earth in which he discusses a school in India where people were taught things pertinent to their lives, such as sustainable agriculture and literacy; things that help them shape their own reality and find their places within that reality (Freire, 75.) What is reality and who determines it? Freire argues that reality is an always changing, transitory process with dialogue and critical thinking at its heart. Reality is not motionless, static, compartmentalized or predictable. Teachers make it seem as though it is. In light of this, what is the appropriate education for the oppressed or for anyone?

Freire states that education is a subversive force. In particular education is both subversive and real when it is liberating. "Education as the exercise of domination stimulates the credulity of students, with the ideological intent (often not perceived by educators) of indocrinating them to adapt to the world of oppression" (59.)Whereas, "Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information" (60.) Most tellingly, "Problem posing education does not and cannot serve the interests of the oppressor. No oppressive order could permit the oppressed to begin to question: Why?" (67.) Indeed, problem posing education is a form of education which provides a method of finding meaningful problems and solutions for those receiving the education; not a way to oppress those attempting to gain education. The oppressors basically do not wish for the oppressed to think for themselves; similar to how advertisers attempt to plant ideas in the consumer's subconscious mind and give him/her notions about providing for the ease of things being done for them, pre-made. The oppressors do not want the oppressed to have the education that is based on experiential learning. A pre-made education is one which will keep the oppressed oppressed and without freedom. True education is a practice of freedom (77) and requires that the oppressed apprehend and intervene in reality (90.)

Conscientizacao is a central concept to Freire's conclusions. Ther term is described as "learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality" (17.) Freire states that some perceive conscientizacao as a danger. Conscientizacao involves knowing and naming the reality around you and interpreting that reality with critical analysis. In a sense it is a state of becoming fully conscious.

"Unity and organization can enable them to change their weakness into a transforming force with which they can re-create the world and make it more human." This book is an excellent work providing prescriptive evidence about how the oppressed might go about creating their own reality to overcome oppression, seizing education, true education, as a path to freedom.

Rating:
Summary: How does knowledge truly emerge?
Review: What does knowledge contained within the "banking" form of education have to do with the reality of the oppressed? Freire's discussion of this concept brought to mind a passage in Robert Kaplan's book The Ends of The Earth in which he discusses a school in India where people were taught things pertinent to their lives, such as sustainable agriculture and literacy; things that help them shape their own reality and find their places within that reality (Freire, 75.) What is reality and who determines it? Freire argues that reality is an always changing, transitory process with dialogue and critical thinking at its heart. Reality is not motionless, static, compartmentalized or predictable. Teachers make it seem as though it is. In light of this, what is the appropriate education for the oppressed or for anyone?

Freire states that education is a subversive force. In particular education is both subversive and real when it is liberating. "Education as the exercise of domination stimulates the credulity of students, with the ideological intent (often not perceived by educators) of indocrinating them to adapt to the world of oppression" (59.)Whereas, "Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information" (60.) Most tellingly, "Problem posing education does not and cannot serve the interests of the oppressor. No oppressive order could permit the oppressed to begin to question: Why?" (67.) Indeed, problem posing education is a form of education which provides a method of finding meaningful problems and solutions for those receiving the education; not a way to oppress those attempting to gain education. The oppressors basically do not wish for the oppressed to think for themselves; similar to how advertisers attempt to plant ideas in the consumer's subconscious mind and give him/her notions about providing for the ease of things being done for them, pre-made. The oppressors do not want the oppressed to have the education that is based on experiential learning. A pre-made education is one which will keep the oppressed oppressed and without freedom. True education is a practice of freedom (77) and requires that the oppressed apprehend and intervene in reality (90.)

Conscientizacao is a central concept to Freire's conclusions. Ther term is described as "learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality" (17.) Freire states that some perceive conscientizacao as a danger. Conscientizacao involves knowing and naming the reality around you and interpreting that reality with critical analysis. In a sense it is a state of becoming fully conscious.

"Unity and organization can enable them to change their weakness into a transforming force with which they can re-create the world and make it more human." This book is an excellent work providing prescriptive evidence about how the oppressed might go about creating their own reality to overcome oppression, seizing education, true education, as a path to freedom.

Rating:
Summary: Few books can change your life -- this book is one of them.
Review: When two people meet who have read _Pedagogy of the Oppressed_, they invariably talk about how they became a different person after they finished it. Something in Freire's words transforms you, makes it an ethical imperative for you to work against oppression. Although this fight against oppression is never easy, it is a journey that makes your life, and the lives of many others, meaningful in a way that it had not been before. I give this book as a gift to anyone I love; it is the best gift that I could possibly give