Paulo Frieres

The Pedagogy of the Oppressed

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paulo Freire was born in 1921 in Brazil.
Until 1964, he was Professor of History and Philosophy of Education in the
University in his town.
In the 60s, he was involved in a popular movement to make more people in
his country able to read.
His government tried to use his methods and it spread very fast.
But, in 1964 he was put in jail because a group took over the government
and said that his teachings would make people not want to follow them.

Since, he couldnt go back to his country, he went to Chile and his work
spread there.
In the 1970s he got a special position where he gave advice about
education world-wide.
He was allowed back in Brazil in 1979 and joined a group that tried to help
low income workers called the Workers Party. Then he became the secretary
of education in a major city. Freire died in 1997.
We are studying him because there is a close link between class and
education.

CHAPTER 1
The problem of treating people like human beings has always been the
worlds main problem. But, now it is something that we cant get away from.
Understanding how people should be treated like people immediately leads you to
realize that historically people have always been treated like less than human.
When we see how poorly people are being treated, we might ask if the opposite is
even possible. Both extremes are possible.

QUESTION #1: What are some examples of people historically being
treat like they are less than human?



Treating one another as human beings is prevented by injustice, exploitation
(taking advantage of someone), oppression, and violence by the oppressors.
Treating one another as human beings is made stronger by the oppressed really
wanting freedom, justice, and humanity.


Admitting that we dont treat people like human beings, throughout history
would lead us to only think the worst or lose all hope. This unfair way of treating
people is not what we are meant to do. Instead, its what happens when an unfair
system keeps it this way.

QUESTION: Can you think of Systems in America? What makes
some of them unfair?

Sooner or later, the people who are kept down, the oppressed, will have
conflict with those who put them there. But, in order for it to even mean anything,
the people who are kept down cant try to keep down those who treated them
poorly. Instead they have to be the ones to make it so that everyone treats each
other like human beings.

QUESTION: Why cant the people who are kept down and treated
badly by others get revenge?



This is the giant task of those who are kept down and treated cruelly: to free
themselves and their oppressors as well. The oppressors who abuse, take advantage
of, and rape because of how much power they have, cant find in this power the
strength to free themselves or the people they treat poorly. Only power that comes
from the weakness of the oppressed will be strong enough to free them both.
Trying to take some of the power from the oppressors to give to the
oppressed always comes across like fake generosity, nothing more. In order for the
oppressors to keep giving out this generosity, they have to keep being unjust.
Really being generous means trying to get rid of the bad systems in place that
make people feel like they have to show fake generosity. True generosity is when
you work so that people dont have to constantly ask for help, but instead can work
to change the world.

Who is more prepared than the oppressed to understand the importance of an
oppressive society? Who suffers the effect of oppression more than the oppressed?
Who can better understand how much freedom is needed? They will not gain this
freedom randomly, but only when they go after it by realizing that they need to
fight for it.

But almost every time, in the beginning of the struggle, the oppressed,
instead of getting freedom oppress other people. They want to be treated like men,
but for them to be a man is to keep someone else down. This is how they try to
model how we should treat one another. This comes from the fact that the
oppressed at one point take on the attitude of the people who keep everyone down.

QUESTION: How can you analyze the following quote? How does it
relate to the passage?


The oppressed people who take in and adopt how oppressors act are scared of
freedom. Freedom would make them get rid of this image and replace it with them
making their own decisions and choices, as well as taking responsibility for things.
You get freedom by going after it, its not a gift. Freedom is that constant search
for human completion.

To get over being treated poorly for a long period of time, people must realize
where it comes from so that they can change it and create a new situation. The
oppressed are faced with a double edge sword. Without freedom, theyre not really
living to the fullest. They want to live to the fullest, but they are scared of it.

The conflict lies in the choice between completely being themselves or being
divided; between getting rid of the oppressor within themselves or not getting rid
of them; between humans being one or being separated; between following orders
or having choices' between being those who watch or those who act; between
acting or having the illusion of acting through the action of the oppressors;
between speaking out or being silent, powerless in their power to create and
recreate, in their power to change the world. This is the sad problem of the
oppressed which their education must take into account.




Freedom is like a painful childbirth. In order for the oppressed to get this, the
oppressed must look at their current condition as a bad situation that needs to be
changed, not as a closed world where theres no exit.
The same is true when you look at the individual oppressor as a person. Figuring
out that he is an oppressor may make him feel horrible, but this doesnt always
lead to him uniting with the oppressed. Making himself feel better through treating
the oppressed like kids he has to take care of, while making them dependent on
him, will not do.

The pedagogy of the oppressed, has two stages. In the first, the oppressed realize
the oppression in the world and commit themselves to changing it. In the second
stage, after the oppression has been changed, this pedagogy (teaching) stops
belonging only to the oppressed and becomes a pedagogy of all people who want
freedom permanently.
Any situation in which "A" takes advantage of "B" or makes him less able to be
responsible for himself is oppression. A situation like this is violence, even if you
try to sugar coat it with fake generosity because it gets in the way of the persons
job to be human. Never in history has violence been started by the oppressed. How
could they be the ones who started it, if the violence is being put on them?
It is not the unloved who spread unhappiness, but those who cannot love because
they love only themselves. It is not the helpless who start terror, but the violent,
who with their power create the situations that make the "rejects of life." It is not
the hated who start hatred, but those who hate. For the oppressors, however, it is
always the oppressed (whom they obviously never call "the oppressed) who are
disaffected, who are "violent," "barbaric," "wicked," or "scary" when they react to
the violence of the oppressors.
Somehow, the act of rebellion by the oppressed can start love because its a way to
pursue the idea of being treated like a human and frees those that treat the
oppressed unfairly.