Paulo Freire, a man commmitted with his reality

Hi! Today Im going to tell you about an important author, who broke the traditional educational models of his time. He is Paulo Freire.

First of all, a little biography. Paulo Freire was born 19 September, 1921, in Recife, Brazil, within a middle class family. In 1943 he matriculates at the law school of the “Universidad de Recife”, where he studies philosophy and language philology at the same time. He never practice advocacy, he preferred teach Portuguese at high school. In 1994 Freire married with Elza Maia Costa de Oliveira, a elementary school teacher. In 1967, Freire published his first book, Education as the Practice of Freedom. He followed this with his most famous book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, in 1968. Freire died of heart failure on May 2, 1997 in São Paulo.

About his work, in general, he reveals how the institutional education reproduces an unfair system that makes vulnerable people bear the negatives consequences of this system. This is because the ways of teaching doesn’t favor the creation of a critical subject, who is able to transform his culture. That is why he proposed an alternative way of teaching that makes possible that the subject be conscious of his reality and the roll that he have. In this pedagogy, the teacher is just an assistant for his own education. Al this concepts are development in his greatest works, “Pedagogy of the oppressed” and “Education as the Practice of Freedom”.

An example of his works is when, in 1961 -when he was appointed director of the Department of Cultural Extension of Recife University- 300 sugarcane workers were taught to read and write in just 45 days. In response to this experiment, the Brazilian government approved the creation of thousands of cultural circles across the country.

This author is important for me because, across his career, he try to create real ways to improve the system where he grown up. As a sociology student, I realized that this system is unfair, and thinking I can`t change anything. This unfair system is reproduce by formal education, and this is the way to change it. Despite pedagogy is not directly related with sociology, I think it is a real way to make my ideals about society come true.