Review of Pedagogy of the Oppressed

by Paulo Freire
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, pedagogy means the
art, science, or profession of teaching. On the other hand, oppress means
to crush or burden by abuse of power or authority. This book of Paulo
Freire exposes how oppression is currently happening to our daily lives,
without us even being conscious of it.
I was convinced by Paulo Freires statement that our current education
follows that of the banking concept. It is the act of depositing of the
teacher to his/her students, and making the students believe that what their
teachers say is correct. It is the forcing of knowledge to be memorized, for
students to follow anything their teacher tells them to do. As a result, the
students can be compared to robots. They tend to lack creativity, knowledge,
and transformation through this process. Knowledge can only be attained
through invention and re-invention, but how can students attain this if there
is an invisible rule that they should follow every order their teacher tells
them? This invisible rule allows the students to adapt to the banking concept
of teaching, making them weak against oppression. As long as the students
adapt to the system, the easier they can be dominated. The banking concept
discourages students to express themselves, to explore, and to figure out
themselves. They are forced to accept what the school is teaching, even
though they dont want to. In my experience, there were times when I was

in high school that I proved my teacher wrong, but then she didnt accept
her mistake and made me look disrespectful in front of our class. Her answer
prevailed during that time, only to be found out that I was really correct. I
hate how mighty some teachers think they are. I believe that they exist in
order to help us students grow intellectually, and not to stump our growth by
forcing us to believe and memorize things which are correct for them, but
not for the world. I experienced education which negates thinking. We
werent encouraged to think, but instead, to memorize only. And in order to
change this system, communication is vital. The teaching process must not
be one-way, but be responsive or two-way. The teacher should learn from
the student, and the student must learn from the teacher. They should
communicate with each other, which results to thinking, invention, and
expression.

This,

when

gathered,

results

to

knowledge.

Through

communication and sharing of experiences, both the teacher and student

experience the reality of the world, and not the written facts about it. Both
of them arent forced to adapt to a certain system, but instead, they explore
different worlds and experiences, making their beliefs and principles tough,
resulting to them being strong against dominance and oppression. When our
education allows genuine communication, people wont allow themselves to
be taken over by any kind of system.
Dialogue is an act of creation. It exists due to profound love for the
world and for the people, humility, hope, critical thinking, and intense faith

in humankind. In return, it establishes trust. Without dialogue, there is no

communication, and without communication there can be no true education.
The dialogical character of education practices freedom among a society.
Communication involves thinking before speaking. In the case of educators
and politicians, they should dialogue with the people with their view and the
audiences view, and not only about theirs. In order to communicate
effectively, they should understand their audiences situation and reality, and
relate to them in order for the audience to understand their dialogue.
The important thing is for people to think that they are their own
masters of thinking by merging the views of the world, their own
suggestions, and of their community. I believe that oppression can be killed
if people learn to co-exist with each other and learn from one another.