Assignment 1b

Paulo Freire is one of the most influential minds in the world of education. Throughout his life he created a system that allows people to learn for themselves. His various concepts such as "Empowerment", "Humanization", "Dialectic", and others are now used around the world in order to educate. He was a man that though of educating the masses through their own experiences and with those experiences create their own language and way to express themselves.

One of his most influential ideas that I believe is most important is his 'Banking' theory where a student, the bank, just takes in the knowledge the teachers is giving the student and basically regurgitates it back to the world the student lives in. This idea coincides with Mr. Freire and his belief that a student should not just receive information from his teacher, his peer, but be able to ask questions about the information given. Student and teacher developing a dialogue where they both give their ideas and thoughts and learn from each other on the basis of the conversation they are having and not just a one sided conversation.

Another important idea of his is that of the learning process. Mr. Freire believed that a person learns about the world around them and from that should actively think about and meditate about the situation that surrounds them. A person should be aware of the world they live in and because of it learn how to live in their world not a world dictated by those that tell them how. Mr. Freire explains that a person should not only understand their own world but try and change it and not live beneath another persons rules but create their own and with this their own language.


http://www.comminit.com/en/node/27123/36
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Freire