Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Hidden within the thesaurus explosion that was Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed," there were some very important and valid points. Like Freire, I also strongly disagree with the belief that children are simply receptacles to be filled, as knowledge can never be fully finished or obtained. I like to think of children as fires to be fed. As teachers, it is up to us to inspire the fires of creativity and critical thinking within each of our students. I also very much agree that mutual respect and mutual learning must exist in every classroom between the students and the teacher. The vast majority of students take every word uttered in the classroom as the truth, likely because that's how most teachers present it, when they really have the opportunity to question whatever they please. It is vital that we not only allow but also hear the doubts and thought processes of each individual. All perspectives and values are different, and it is very true that we can learn just as much from our students as they learn from us. There were also a few areas of this excerpt that seemed a bit exaggerated. The majority of the article felt a bit like Dumbledore was bestowing upon me his golden nuggets of knowledge in well-rehearsed, riddle-like phrases. It also gave me the impression that I was going to burn in the fiery depths of hell for assigning my students a section of required reading. I don't think that by implementing a banking approach within a classroom that a teacher has doomed her students for all of eternity as this article made it seem, though I do think that the teacher would be wise to alter this approach. The classroom should be a conversation in which students and teachers who share a respectful and valued relationship with one another than discuss and solve problems relevant to both the content and their lives.