Frire

As Freire says, many times the teacher feels that they are completely in power and the students are not in any power or have control to make any decisions. I know once in elementary school my teacher asked the class a question, and other kids raised their hands and gave answers but they were all “wrong” according to my teacher. When she told us the right answer, it was very close to what they were saying, but since it was not the exact words, then it was wrong in her mind. Another example comes when I was in math class in junior high. A lot of the students in my class came from a different elementary school than I did, and the way they approached a problem to get to the answer was different then the teacher was teaching us. He insisted it was wrong, but it seemed to me that he was just not open to new ideas. What Freire is referring to when he talks about reflection is the ability to have the teacher (or oppressor) to look back on themselves and see what all they are doing, and see the way and method they are using to “teach” or “deposit” information into the students.

What teachers would be able to learn from their students is how to approach ideas and thoughts differently. Many times students are more in-tune with the way the world is working and their new ideas they present could in-fact be revolutionary. Since the world is changing at a faster pace than ever, the age group that is most exposed to this, is the 7-24 range, and then they “teach” what they see to the teacher. Even when the kids “teach” the teacher, it is in a very indirect form and more than likely the teacher will not even notice that this is happening.

I think of Freire as a writer in this essay, and he does not enact his own principals in my opinion. I feel that during most of the reading, he makes things overly complicated and does not