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The greatest humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves.

Paulo Freire

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Paulo Freire
Age: 75 †
Born: 1921
Born: October 19
Died: 1997
Died: May 2
Economist
Educator
Philosopher
Poet Lawyer
Teacher
Writer
Timochenko
Paulo Reglus Neves Freire
Humanistic
Liberate
Oppressed
Task
Tasks
Historical
Greatest
Freedom
Pedagogy

More quotes by Paulo Freire

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The teacher is no longer merely the-one-who-teaches, but one who is him/herself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teach. They become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow.
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Reading is not walking on the words it's grasping the soul of them.
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Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students.
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As one might expect, authoritarianism will at times cause children and students to adopt rebellious positions, defiant of any limit, discipline, or authority. But it will also lead to apathy, excessive obedience, uncritical conformity, lack of resistance against authoritarian discourse, self-abnegation, and fear of freedom.
Paulo Freire
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Reflection and action must never be undertaken independently.
Paulo Freire
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What if we discover that our present way of life is irreconcilable with our vocation to become fully human?
Paulo Freire
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How can I be an educator if I do not develop in myself a caring and loving attitude toward the student, which is indispensable on the part of one who is committed to teaching and to the education process itself.
Paulo Freire
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The role of the educator is one of tranquil possession of certitude in regard to the teaching of not only contents but also of 'correct thinking.'
Paulo Freire
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Dehumanization, although a concrete historical fact, is not a given destiny but the result of an unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors, which in turn dehumanizes the oppressed
Paulo Freire
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The atmosphere of the home is prolonged in the school, where the students soon discover thatin order to achieve some satisfaction they must adapt to the precepts which have ben set from above. One of these precepts is not to think.
Paulo Freire
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Liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it.
Paulo Freire
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Whether the teacher is authoritarian, undisciplined, competent, incompetent, serious, irresponsible, involved, a lover of people and of life, cold, angry with the world, bureaucratic, excessively rational, or whatever else, he/she will not pass through the classroom without leaving his or her mark on the students.
Paulo Freire
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Education is an act of love, and thus an act of courage
Paulo Freire
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It is not possible to remake this country, to democratize it, humanize it, make it serious, as long as we have teenagers killing people for play and offending life, destroying the dream, and making love unviable. If education alone cannot transform society, without it society cannot change either.
Paulo Freire
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This pedagogy makes oppression and its causes objects of reflection by the oppressed, and from that reflection will come their necessary engagement in the struggle for their liberation. And in the struggle this pedagogy will be made and remade
Paulo Freire
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Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion.
Paulo Freire
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No pedagogy which is truly liberating can remain distant from the oppressed by treating them as unfortunates and by presenting for their emulation models from among the oppressors. The oppressed must be their own example in the struggle for their redemption (Freire, 1970, p. 54).
Paulo Freire
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The behavior and reactions of the oppressed, which lead the oppressor to practice cultural invasion, should evoke from the revolutionary a different theory of action. What distinguishes revolutionary leaders from the dominant elite is not only their objectives, but their procedures.
Paulo Freire
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Although the teachers or the students are not the same, the person in charge of education is being formed or re-formed as he/she teaches, and the person who is being taught forms him/herself in the process. ...There is, in fact, no teaching without learning.
Paulo Freire
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I have never said, as is sometimes believed, or even suggested that lower-class children should not learn the so-called educated norm of the Portuguese language of Brazil. What I have said is that the problems of language always involve ideological questions and, along with them, questions of power.
Paulo Freire