Paulo Freire (1921 – 1997)
Brazilian educator and theorist of critical pedagogy.
"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."
"Education as the exercise of domination stimulates the credulity of the students."
"True solidarity is found only in the plenitude of this act of love, and in its existentiality, in its praxis."
"Certain members of the oppressor class join the oppressed in their struggle for liberation."
"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."
"The behavior of the oppressed is a prescribed behavior, following as it does the guidelines of the oppressor."
"Yet only through communication can human life hold meaning."
"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."
"The oppressor, who is himself dehumanized because he dehumanizes others, is unable to lead this struggle."
"Some may think that to affirm dialogue--the encounter of women and men in the world in order to transform the world--is naively and subjectively idealistic. There is nothing, however, more real or concrete than people in the world and with the world, than humans with other humans."
"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."
"It is necessary to trust in the oppressed and in their ability to reason."
"Individuals who were submerged in reality, merely feeling their needs, emerge from reality and perceive the causes of their needs."
"Attempting to liberate the oppressed without their reflective participation in the act of liberation is to treat them as objects that must be saved from a burning building."
"The oppressed find in the oppressors their model of 'manhood.'"
"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.
"A fact which is not denied but whose truths are rationalized loses its objective base. It ceases to be concrete and becomes a myth created in defense of the class of the perceiver."
"It is accomplished by the oppressors depositing myths indispensable to the preservation of the status quo."
"It is not suprising that the banking concept of education regards men as adaptable, manageable beings."
"Critical and liberating dialogue, which presupposes action, must be carried on with the oppressed at whatever the stage of their struggle for liberation."