Assignment 3C

Matthew MDonald wrote about how Paulo Freire was able to teach 300 sugar cane workers who otherwise would have been cast aside by society, to read and write. If Paulo did nothing else than this it would have been a major accomplishment and gift to mankind. These poor workers were left to live a hard life with no way to improve themselves. This freedom that Paulo gave them was something they would never forget and nor will their children. Paulo made it possible for those workers to be able to vote and change the government so that they could change the laws. That would then allow their kids to be able to rise above the oppression that they were born into. In Brazil, they only allowed you to vote if you were literate. So how could you learn to read and write if you were never given the chance? They would now be able to teach their own children how to read and write which would mean that their children would not have to be sugarcane workers unless they wanted to.They could choose to have better paying jobs and would be able to help their own children have a better life as well.
I think that education is the key to having a better life. I agree with Paulo in that when people are taught to read and write they can improve themselves and help themselves out of the oppression that has plagued them for so many years. Once they were able to vote they were able to change their lives and vote for a government that had their concerns in mind because the government is supposed to work for the people. The people who vote decide who the government shall be. If they vote for someone who will have their needs and wants in mind then it will make their lives that much better. It reminds me of what is happening in Africa where the government clearly does not have their people's interests in mind. They stay in power by keeping the people poor and uneducated.
Natty Bingi Rawker wrote about how Paulo Freire was against the banking system of education. I think that Paulo wanted students to feel that they could voice their own opinions and not feel that only the teacher had all the right answers. In his theory he felt that both students and teachers could have an opinion about a subject and could learn from each other. This conversation between educator and student would benefit both the student and the teacher because they were learning from each other. It is interesting to me that when I ask my own daughter what she thinks or feels about something she has a very unique insight that is unadulterated. Even though she is only eight I take her opinions seriously and feel that I learn something from them. If nothing more than how she percieves things in this world. So this would be an example of how I ( the teacher) would have a dialogue with my daughter (the student) and we could both learn from each other instead of me just telling her what the facts were and what she should believe.
I think that our class is an example of how Paulo would consider students and teachers to communicate and educate themselves. The way that we are learning in this class is an example of how Paulo Freire recommended using dialogue to learn. Each and every one of us are drawing our own conclusions about who Paulo Freire was and what he has done for society to make this world a better place. We are also learning about latin history and latin art. We each research on our own to find our own facts and then interpret them in our own words on our blogs. We then read each others comments and draw our own conclusions and or learn something new that we ourselves had not seen in our own research. Ms. Guerrini is simply the guide and steers us towards the subject. We are left to our own devices and are teaching ourselves in the process.