Paulo Freire: Being

Paulo Freire was educator and philosopher. Explore interesting quotes on being.

Paulo Freire: 230 quotes17 likes

“The teacher is of course an artist, but being an artist does not mean that he or she can make the profile, can shape the students. What the educator does in teaching is to make it possible for the students to become themselves.”

Source: We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change

“The educator has the duty of not being neutral.”

Source: We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change

“It is necessary that the weakness of the powerless is transformed into a force capable of announcing justice. For this to happen, a total denouncement of fatalism is necessary. We are transformative beings and not beings for accommodation.”

Paulo Freire book Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Source: Pedagogy of the Oppressed

“To simply think about the people, as the dominators do, without any self-giving in that thought, to fail to think with the people, is a sure way to cease being revolutionary leaders.”

Paulo Freire book Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)

“In sum: banking theory and practice, as immobilizing and fixating forces, fail to acknowledge men and women as historical beings; problem-posing theory and practice take the people's historicity as their starting point.”

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 2

“The unfinished character of human beings and the transformational character of reality necessitate that education be an ongoing activity.”

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 3, on dialogue.

“Implicit in the banking concept is the assumption of a dichotomy between human beings and the world: a person is merely in the world, not with the world or with others; the individual is spectator, not re-creator.”

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 2

“Problem-posing education affirms men and women as beings in the process of becoming.”

Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)

“It is not suprising that the banking concept of education regards men as adaptable, manageable beings.”

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 2

“People are fulfilled only to the extent that they create their world (which is a human world), and create it with their transforming labor. The fulfillment of humankind as human beings lies, then, in the fulfillment of the world. If for a person to be in the world of work is to be totally dependent, insecure, and permanently threatened--if their work does not belong to them--the person cannot be fulfilled. Work that is not free ceases to be a fulfilling pursuit and becomes an effective means of dehumanization.”

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 4, Divide and Rule

“The culture of the dominant class hinders the affirmation of men as beings of decision.”

Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)

“How can the oppressed, as divided unauthentic beings, participate in the pedagogy of their liberation?”

Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)

“Those truly committed to liberation must reject the banking concept in its entirety, adopting instead a concept of women and men as conscious beings, and consciousness as consciousness intent upon the world. They must abandon the educational goal of deposit-making and replace it with the posing of the problems of human beings in their relations with the world.”

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 2