Paulo Freire
Paulo Freire
Paulo Reglus Neves Freirewas a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. He is best known for his influential work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, considered one of the foundational texts of the critical pedagogy movement...
NationalityBrazilian
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth19 September 1921
CountryBrazil
independent reflection reality
Education as the practice of freedom--as opposed to education as the practice of domination--denies that man is abstract, isolated, independent and unattached to the world; it also denies that the world exists as reality apart from people. Authentic reflection considers neither abstract man nor the world without people, but people in their relations with the world. In these relations consciousness and world are simultaneous: consciousness neither precedes the world nor follows it.
welfare-programs manipulation causes
Welfare programs as instruments of manipulation ultimately serve the end of conquest. They act as an anesthetic, distracting the oppressed from the true causes of their problems and from the concrete solutions of these problems.
world banking assumption
Implicit in the banking concept is the assumption of a dichotomy between human beings and the world: a person is merely in the world, not with the world or with others; the individual is spectator, not re-creator.
manipulation individual appetite
One of the methods of manipulation is to inoculate individuals with the bourgeois appetite for personal success.
teacher communication reality
Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in communication. If it is true that thought has meaning only when generated by action upon the world, the subordination of students to teachers becomes impossible.
reading writing touching
Reading the word and learning how to write the word so one can later read it are preceded by learning how to write the world, that is having the experience of changing the world and touching the world.
teacher students term
Through dialogue, the teacher-of-the-students and the students-of-the-teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with students-teachers.
men unfinished process
It is in our incompleteness, of which we are aware, that education as a permanent process is grounded. Women and men are capable of being educated only to the extent that they are capable of recognizing themselves as unfinished.
determination mean responsibility
If I am a pure product of genetic, cultural, or class determination, I have no responsibility for my action in the world and, therefore, it is not possible for me to speak of ethics. Of course, this assumption of responsibility does not mean that we are not conditioned genetically, culturally, and socially. It means that we know ourselves to be conditioned but not determined.
educational men practice
Indeed, some "revolutionaries" brand as "innocents," "dreamers," or even "reactionaries"; those who would challenge this educational practice. But one does not liberate people by alienating them. Authentic liberation - the process of humanization - is not another deposit to be made in men.
originality conformity multitudes
The multitude is always in the wrong.
mean past understanding
Looking at the past must only be a means of understanding more clearly what and who they are so that they can more wisely build the future.
objectivity subjectivity
One cannot conceive of objectivity without subjectivity.
freedom historical tasks
The greatest humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves...