Brought to You by:

This blog was created by the T&L 301 Students:

Molly, Riko, Eric, Ryan, Mui, and Jennifer

Hope you enjoyed the blog!!!

Bibliography

To create this informational blog on Paulo Freire, we used these sources to help us with the project:

Freire, Paulo and Donaldo Macedo. 1995. A Dialogue: Culture, Language, and Race. Journal Harvard Educational Review. 65(3): 377-403. Available at http://her.hepg.org/content/12g1923330p1xhj8/. (verified 18 September 2011)

Freire, Paulo and Antonio Faundez. 1989. Learning to Question: A Pedagogy of Liberation. The Continuum Publishing Company, New York.

Grollios, Georgios. 2009. Paulo Freire and the Curriculum. Paradigm Publishers, London.

Mackie, Robert. Ed. 1980.  Literacy and Revolution: The Pedagogy of Paulo Freire. The Continuum Publishing Company, New York.

McLaren, Peter and Peter Leonard. 1993. Paulo Freire: A Critical Encounter. Routledge, London.

Paulo Freire - An Incredible Conversation. 1996. Youtube. Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFWjnkFypFA (verified 18 September 2011)

Ramos, Myra B. Paulo Freire: The “Banking” Concept of Education. Available at http://faculty.dwc.edu/wellman/Friere.htm (verified 18 September 2011)

Shore, Ira. 1987. Freire for the Classroom: A Sourcebook for Liberatory Teaching. Boynton/Cook Publishers, Inc. New Hampshire.

Last Moments of Life

The last moments of my life. Minute 5:54
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFWjnkFypFA

Popular Education

"The teacher is the know-all."
"Female teachers are most common."
"Students must absorb the information, comprehension over critical thinking."
"Teachers talk at their students opposed to with them"
"Vocational Education promotes life skills."

These are popular assumptions connected to education. As I have said before there should be student-teacher dualism, no "banking" of education, and the Big Four should not affect our learning capabilities. However, I do believe that education should take a role in preparing students in post-institutional life.

Literacy Method

Education shouldn't be one person acting on another but both learning , questioning, reflecting, and participating together. The educational system should follow a path of student-teacher dualism, where both are teaching and learning, simultaneously. The idea of having an authoritative figure to which one is subservient fosters a system of silencing. Dialogue is the means of conscientization, which awakens the consciousness about social reality and the world around them.

The "Banking" Critique

Students are not empty accounts to which teachers deposit information. This "banking concept" minimizes students' critical thinking and hinders intellectual growth. The aims of this concept is to continue the division between those who are knowing and those who are not. By just filling students minds with "correct" answers which they memorize, store, and repeat, we are silencing the concept of an original opinion, killing the idea of the students unique ideas to contribute. This destroys curiosity, creativity, and any investigative spirit in the learners, encouraging passive behavior. Those who accept this concept, "care neither to have the world revealed, nor to see it transformed".

http://faculty.dwc.edu/wellman/Friere.htm

My Feelings on the Big Four

The Big Four: Race, Gender, Class, and Sexual Orientation. These four are huge factors in the foundation of today's education and have influenced how society view's individuals. I believe that if these four can be eliminated early on in a child's education, we can promote equality of all people without regards to culture. Through this equality, society can view individuals through a lens of personality rather than prejudiced ideas.

Please direct your attention to http://her.hepg.org/content/12g1923330p1xhj8/ written by Donaldo Macedo and myself to further read into my viewpoint on this subject.

My Role Models

Frantz Fanon and Karl Marx...my inspiration for education and social reform. Fanon's beliefs of post-colonialisim resonate with my own beliefs. I believe education must be new and modern instead of an extension of traditional education and culture of the colonizer.  Marx and I also urge both students and teachers to unlearn their race, class, and gender privileges and to engage in a dialogue with those whose experiences are very different from their own. By doing this, our society may become more diversified.

My Self Identity

When I was young, my family faced difficult times. I  knew I was not wealthy after the economic downfall and my father's death, our family was so poor I could not eat. As hunger began to set it, my thought was directed to my stomach instead of my books. My older brother began working which alleviated my families suffering, allowin me to focus on my intellectual pursuits. Due to this situation, I became more concentrated on education and social reform, including working on different areas in the community to improve people's lives. For these reasons, I tried hard to fight with poverty and sought to better the next generation so as not to suffer as I had suffered.