Paulo Freire (1921 – 1997)
Brazilian educator and theorist of critical pedagogy.
"Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people--they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress."
"The oppressor, who is himself dehumanized because he dehumanizes others, is unable to lead this struggle."
"This book will present some aspects of what the writer has termed the pedagogy of the oppressed, a pedagogy which must be forged with, not for, the oppressed (whether individuals or peoples) in the incessant struggle to regain their humanity."
"Yet only through communication can human life hold meaning."
"The behavior of the oppressed is a prescribed behavior, following as it does the guidelines of the oppressor."
"This work deals with a very obvious truth: just as the oppressor, in order to oppress, needs a theory of oppressive action, so the oppressed, in order to become free, also need a theory of action."
"Certain members of the oppressor class join the oppressed in their struggle for liberation."
"True solidarity is found only in the plenitude of this act of love, and in its existentiality, in its praxis."
"Education as the exercise of domination stimulates the credulity of the students."
"In sum: banking theory and practice, as immobilizing and fixating forces, fail to acknowledge men and women as historical beings; problem-posing theory and practice take the people's historicity as their starting point."
"Those who are served by the present limit-situation regard the untested feasibility as a threatening limit-situation which must not be allowed to materialize, and act to maintain the status quo."
"Reflection upon situationality is reflection about the very condition of existence: critical thinking by means which people discover each other to be 'in a situation.'"
"The oppressors develop a series of methods precluding any presentation of the world as a problem and showing it rather as a fixed entity, as something given--something to which people, as mere spectators, must adapt."
"Trust is established by dialogue."
"Someone who cannot acknowledge himself to be as mortal as everyone else still has a long way to go before he can reach the point of encounter."
"The former oppressors do not feel liberated. On the contrary, they genuinely consider themselves to be oppressed."
"The basic thing, starting from the initial perception of these nuclei of contradictions (which include the principal contradiction of society as a larger epochal unit) is to study the inhabitants' awareness of these contradictions."
"For cultural invasion to succeed, it is essential that those invaded become convinced of their intrinsic inferiority."
"The correct method lies in dialogue. The conviction of the oppressed that they must fight in their liberation is not a gift bestowed by the revolutionary leadership, but the result of their own conscientizaç?o."
"Money is the measure of all things, and profit the primary goal. For the oppressors, what is worthwhile is to have more--always more--even at the cost of the oppressed having less or having nothing. For them, to be is to have."