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PAULO FREIRE: CHAPTER 2 OF PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED

Freire’s chapter showed me that the current teaching strategies need to be adapted in order to break a mindset of oppression.  In the past, education has been a memorization game, memorizing facts for an end of unit test. Today’s education needs to take a different route then that and engage students in critical thinking skills. Freire reminds the teacher that we aren’t preparing students to recite a bunch of facts but to critically think about issues presented in their lives. Just memorizing facts would be ‘banking’ and Freire defines that as, “the teacher issues communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat” (Freire). In order for students to engage in critical thinking, teachers must realize they aren’t just a dispenser of knowledge. Teachers are responsible for teaching their students how to learn and how to think critically. In order to get students to critically think we must run discussions and have conversations on complex ideas. “The solution is not to 'integrate’ them into the structure of oppression, but to transform that structure so that they can become ‘beings for themselves’” (Freire). We as educators must listen to the words of Freire. What is the purpose of education if it doesn’t benefit our students later?  Teachers must deal with the oppressed student populations currently enrolled in schools across the world.

Freire really hit home when he began discussing how teachers are feeding that oppression versus trying to overcome it. The current way we teach students to learn is to adapt to that oppression. We must always encourage our students to chase their dreams. Chasing dreams was how I got to college and I firmly believe that anyone has the power to do as they please with their lives. We as teachers must remind our students of their true potential in the world, not hide it from them. Teaching students skills that will benefit them, later on, is how we accomplish these goals.

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