Response to Freiere's Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Paulo Freire's book the Pedagogy of the Oppressed is a magnificent source that allows an individual to become aware of educational and social struggles. The book brings forth the nature of dominant and subordinate relationships within the classroom, i.e. the 'teacher-student' relationship. It speaks on how important this relationship is in the learning process of both teacher and student.



 In his book, Freire raises the issues of the nature of dominant and subordinate relationships within a classroom the image approach illustrates an idea of the teacher student relation, which he refers to as the banking system. In this system the teacher is the center, and their role is to instill knowledge into their students, these students take this information and believe everything the teacher has to say. Similar to the picture above, which illustrates the teacher as center, in-front, of the class and all the students as blank slates. Each student has no impression, they blend into the background of the pic. each student faces the main focus of the picture the teacher and awaits instructions.  Freire looks as this type of teaching methodology as the striving force of oppression within an educational system.

This book was an interesting read and it allowed me to reevaluate my years of learning growing up.