NLA: Reflections on Paulo Freire

[LRosow at aol.com]

David, I sat overwhelmed yesterday as I attempted to focus on one or two
memories of Paulo and the profound statements made by his presence and
occasional refusals to come to California.  His brand of non-violence was
anything but passive.  

This morning I tried to contemplate his impact on my work, my philosophy, and
my way of being.  At last I have a string of reflections.  I know there is
too much here...and too little.  

During the 1980s I was managing real estate, working in a high school and
very much enjoying being a literacy volunteer.   Beyond that, my new
technology-centered education degree was considered leading edge.  By all
measures, life was full and rewarding.  Then a colleague asked me to
accompany her to a lecture by Paulo Freire, a name unfamiliar to us both.
 
She hardly knew why she was going or even what the agenda might be, but was
quite sure I should attend this orientation session.  The auditorium was
packed when we arrived, so I walked down the aisle and finally settled on the
floor, quite literally at the feet of the man who would change my
perspective...on literacy...and on the world.

Over a very short time he taught me the difference between training and
teaching, between teaching and educating, between educating and liberating.
  

>From Paulo I learned why program-centered lessons that made people laugh
might pale in contrast to learner-centered events that empowered them.  

He helped me see the difference between control and power, too; "external
motivation" and "classroom management" moved back in my lexicon making way
for "learner interest".  

In Paulo's world, art, experience, ideas, dialogue, discussions, language,
becoming, knowing, communication, cooperation, creation, liberation, praxis,
action, reflection, change, life and death were all one.  Everything is
connected, everyone is connected, he taught.  (Why does it feel so terrible
to use the past tense?  Do you think he would find it so?)  
 
Paulo hailed change as the inevitable outcome of praxis, of critically
thinking about a situation--illuminated by theory.  Yet he cautioned that no
topic could be criticized outside its historical framework.  This latitude
allowed me to accept my own authoritarian approach as at once historically
correct and immediately inappropriate.  Through praxis, I discovered that to
contribute we must keep becoming better than we are.  

Equity was never a fixed state in the universe where Paulo lived his
principles.  During one marathon dialogue he suggested that even the gender
biased terms in his early works should be subjected to review.  

He also spoke of Truth.  Centering on the life of the learner provides a core
of Truth from which springs unprecedented freedoms.

Paulo's life was about Equity, Power, Freedom, Truth, Praxis and Becoming.

"True dialogue cannot exist unless it involves critical thinking....For the
naive thinker, the important thing is accommodation to this normalized
'today'.  For the critic the important thing is the continuing humanization
of people."  Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1972.

May we continue to remember and reflect,

La Vergne



La Vergne Rosow, Ed.D.
Literacy!
Post Office Box 85
Huntington Beach
California 92648
United States of America

(714) 960-3989
LRosow at aol.com