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. Paulo Freire More Quotes by Paulo Freire More Quotes From Paulo Freire Sometimes a simple, almost insignificant gesture on the part of a teacher can have a profound formative effect on the life of a student. Paulo Freire educationalteacherphilosophy It doesnt hurt to repeat here the statement, still rejected by many people in spite of its obviousness, that education is a political act. Paulo Freire politicalhurtpeople One of the methods of manipulation is to inoculate individuals with the bourgeois appetite for personal success. Paulo Freire manipulationmethodindividual It is only the oppressed who, by freeing themselves, can free their oppressors. Paulo Freire oppressorsoppressed To study is not to consume ideas, but to create and re-create them. Paulo Freire studyideas True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity. False charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the "rejects of life," to extend their trembling hands. True generosity lies in striving so that these hands--whether of individuals or entire peoples--need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work and, working, transform the world. Paulo Freire fightinglyinghands ... teaching cannot be a process of transference of knowledge from the one teaching to the learner. This is the mechanical transference from which results machinelike memorization, which I have already criticized. Critical study correlates with teaching that is equally critical, which necessarily demands a critical way of comprehending and of realizing the reading of the word and that of the world, the reading of text and of context. Paulo Freire learningreadingteaching Human existence cannot be silent, nor can it be nourished by false words, but only by true words, with which people transform the world. To exist, humanly, is to name the world, to change it. Once named, the world in its turn reappears to the namers as a problem and requires of them a new naming. People are not built in silence, but in word, in work, in action-reflection. Paulo Freire reflectionnamespeople Critical reflection on practice is a requirement of the relationship between theory and practice. Otherwise theory becomes simply "blah, blah, blah, " and practice, pure activism. Paulo Freire requirementsreflectionpractice If the structure does not permit dialogue the structure must be changed Paulo Freire permitstructuredoe Dialogue cannot exist, however, in the absence of a profound love for the world and its people. Paulo Freire profoundpeopleworld Experience teaches us not to assume that the obvious is clearly understood Paulo Freire obviousteachassuming I cannot be a teacher without exposing who I am. Paulo Freire educationalteacherphilosophy What if we discover that our present way of life is irreconcilable with our vocation to become fully human? Paulo Freire what-ifdestinylife The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world. The more completely they accept the passive role impressed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them. Paulo Freire rolesviewsreality Any situation in which some men prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence;… to alienate humans from their own decision making is to change them into objects. Paulo Freire inquirydecisionmen Problem-posing education affirms men and women as beings in the process of becoming. Paulo Freire becomingproblemmen The oppressors do not perceive their monopoly on having more as a privilege which dehumanizes others and themselves. They cannot see that, in the egoistic pursuit of having as a possessing class, they suffocate in their own possessions and no longer are; they merely have. Paulo Freire monopolyprivilegeclass Liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it. Paulo Freire reflectionmenorder Every relationship of domination, of exploitation, of oppression is by definition violent, whether or not the violence is expressed by drastic means. In such a relationship, dominator and dominated alike are reduced to things- the former dehumanized by an excess of power, the latter by a lack of it. And things cannot love. Paulo Freire excessviolencemean
