Paulo Freire (1921 – 1997)
Brazilian educator and theorist of critical pedagogy.
"Founding itself upon love, humility, and faith, dialogue becomes a horizontal relationship of which mutual trust between the dialoguers is a logical consequence."
"The thematics which have come from the people return to them--not as contents to be deposited, but as problems to be solved."
"In a dynamic, rather than static, view of revolution, there is no absolute 'before' or 'after,' with the taking of power as the dividing line."
"Education as the exercise of domination stimulates the credulity of students, with the ideological intent (often not perceived by educators) of indoctrinating them to adapt to the world of oppression."
"A deepened consciousness of their situation leads people to apprehend that situation as an historical reality susceptible of transformation."
"The oppressors, who oppress, exploit, and rape by virtue of their power, cannot find in this power the strength to liberate either the oppressed or themselves."
"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 do not favor promoting the community as a whole, but rather selected leaders."
"As long as they live in the duality in which to be is to to be like, and to be like is to be like the oppressor, this contribution is impossible."
"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral."
"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."
"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."
"For cultural invasion to succeed, it is essential that those invaded become convinced of their intrinsic inferiority."
"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."
"The former oppressors do not feel liberated. On the contrary, they genuinely consider themselves to be oppressed."
"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."
"Trust is established by dialogue."
"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."
"The unfinished character of human beings and the transformational character of reality necessitate that education be an ongoing activity."
"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."