BOOK - PEDAGOGY
OF THE OPPRESSED
AUTHOR - PAULO
FREIRE
PUBLISHED BY THE CONTINUUM PUBLISHING COMPANY
1970
Pedagogy of the oppressed by Paulo freire is a
book about Ideas.It was a great read,freire’s ideas are essentially Marxist but
they are also humanist and even democratic,in the sense of believing that all
people equal. I find this book interesting, basically it pictures about
oppressor,oppressed,oppression,banking concept of education,problem posing
education,dialogics and conquest, divide, rule, manipulationand cultural invasion.I
like the way he pictured oppressed, frerie’s conviction that every human
being,no matter how ignorant or submerged in the ‘culture of silence’, he or she is capable of looking critically at
the world in a dialogical encounters with others.Ignorance is the direct
product of economic, social, political domination.To humanize exploited class,peasantry
have to humanize themselves at first ‘concern
for humanization leads at once tot the recognition of dehumanization’.freire
beautifully states that oppressed can free themselves through struggle to
regain their humanity,they must not seek to become oppressors of the oppressors
but rather restorers of the humanity of both.I like this concept that’s
oppressor do not have power to liberate either oppressed or themselves ‘power of the oppressed will be
sufficiently strong enough to free both’. This idea about oppressed evoked
my consciousness. I agree with his view that oppressed has the better
understanding of the oppressive society and oppressors. He advocates that
critical consciousness of the oppressed will enable them to liberate themselves
from dominating class and their ideologies. Another important aspects I find in
this book are ‘fear of freedom’ and
‘relationship between oppressor and oppressed’. During the process of
liberation oppressed do not become new man or woman, they want to identify
themselves with oppressors,unconsciously fear inside them lead them to desire
the role of oppressors ‘shadows of their
former oppressor is still cast over them’. Oppressed unconsciously
internalise the image of the oppressor so obviously they become like their
oppressors. Freire advocates freedom is acquired by conquest he says ‘quest for human completion’. Followingchapter
freire discusses about the purpose of education as in problem posing education,
I dislike his comments about teachers, he attacks teachers regarding their
authority over students. Teachers acquires knowledge through hard work, I don’t
see any crime in reflecting their ideas,thoughts to their students. Freire
compares teachers with the oppressors. I dislike his view about teachers but
then I like his comments about education he says ‘education becomes an act of depositing, the students as the
depositories and teachers as depositors’.It’s clear that problem is with
educational system and not with teachers. This ideology prevailed over years
teachers had to adapt with that kind of system. There is no point in blaming
teachers in the first place. Purpose of the education is to make critical
consciousness that can be achieved through interaction or dialogues. Every
student have their unique ideas, these ideas could be brought out only through
communication. This would enable both teachers and the students to explore the
world of ideological myths and beliefs in the society. He says that education
as the practice of freedom ‘only
dialogue is capable of generating critical thinking without dialogue there is
no communication and without communication there can be no true education’.Consciousness
enables individuals to perceive world within limit-situations but then critical
consciousness enables individuals to perceive world without limit-situations.
It just transcends limitations and evokes individuals to struggle and hope for
liberation. Through critical consciousness men and women discover that they are
creators of culture, respond to changes occurring in the structures of society.
In the last chapter he goes on to elaborate about the oppressors, theoppressed,
and the revolutionaries in depth. Freire defines the state of oppressor ‘in order to dominate, the dominator has no
choice but the deny true praxis to the people, deny the right to say their own
words and think their own thoughts’. Dominators can sustain their power
through projecting their ideologies, myths.
‘As the oppressor, subordinates and dominates the majority, it must divide it
and keep it divided in order to maintain power’. In order to overcome these
hurdles and to project human society oppressed should allow oppressors to fuse
with them. Freire believes that it is necessary to obtain communion in order to
achieve transformation. I like his idea about oppressors that’s oppressors
should gel with oppressed basically when oppressors fuse they should not mimic,
manipulate and divide oppressed through their ideologies and myths because they
are striving to create human society, humancompletion. All they need is cooperation,
unity and organisation. Unity and organisation can enable them to change their
weakness into a transforming force in which they can recreate the world and
make it more human. Oppressed and oppressors are both interlaced,
oppressorscan’t liberate by themselves without liberating oppressed. Revolution
is human liberation. Idea I liked regarding revolution is that the oppressors
should fight along with oppressed
and not for oppressed. Oppressors
should not be separated from oppressed. What is more interesting in this
influential book is that it would evoke the critical consciousness of the
readers because it circles around nature of cultural invasion he says ‘cultural conquest leads to the cultural
inauthenticity of those who are invaded; they begin to respond to the values.
The standards and the goals of the invaders’.Oppressed always follows
culture of oppressors in order to identify themselves with the oppressors.
Basic idea that friere projects is that unity can bring oppressed and
oppressors together. This book contains philosophical language. I would rate
this book eight out of ten. I would recommend this to college students. His
ideas are essentiallyMarxist, I don’t find any
contradictions with any aspects of Marxism.
- C.L.SAMPAUL
