Paulo Freire (1921 – 1997)
Brazilian educator and theorist of critical pedagogy.
"As the oppressor minority subordinates and dominates the majority, it must divide it and keep it divided in order to remain in power."
"The dialogical character of education as the practice of freedom does not begin when the teacher-student meets with the students-teachers in pedagogical situation, but rather when the former first asks herself or himself what she or he will dialogue with the latter about."
"Almost never do they realize that they, too, 'know things' they have learned in their relations with the world."
"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."
"Organization is not only directly linked to unity, but a natural development of that unity. Accordingly, the leaders' pursuit of that unity is also an attempt to organize the people, requiring witness to the fact that the struggle for liberation is a common task."
"The atmosphere of the home is prolonged in school, where students soon discover that (as in the home) in order to achieve some satisfaction they must adapt to the precepts which have been set from above. One of these precepts is not to think."
"Liberation is thus a childbirth, and a painful one."
"The more educators and the people investigate the people's thinking, and are thus jointly educated, the more they continue to investigate."
"While no one liberates himself by his own efforts alone, neither is he liberated by others."
"For if the people join to their presence in the historical process critical thinking about that process, the threat of their emergence materializes in a revolution. Whether one calls this correct thinking 'revolutionary consciousness' or 'class consciousness,' it is an indispensable precondition of revolution. The dominant elites are so well aware of this fact that they instinctively use all means, including physical violence, to keep people from thinking."
"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."
"A deepened consciousness of their situation leads people to apprehend that situation as an historical reality susceptible of transformation."
"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."
"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."
"The thematics which have come from the people return to them--not as contents to be deposited, but as problems to be solved."
"Founding itself upon love, humility, and faith, dialogue becomes a horizontal relationship of which mutual trust between the dialoguers is a logical consequence."
"Problem-posing education affirms men and women as beings in the process of becoming."
"People will be truly critical if they live in the plenitude of the praxis, that is, if their action encompasses a critical reflection which increasingly organizes their thinking and thus leads them to move from a purely naive knowledge of reality to a higher level, one which enables them to perceive the causes of reality."
"Critical perception cannot be imposed."
"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."