4 Quotes & Sayings By Paolo Freire

Paolo Freire (1921-) was a Brazilian educator who has become one of the most influential teachers of the twentieth century. Educated at the University of Sao Paulo, he wrote his first book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, in 1968. His subsequent works include Pedagogy of the Passion (1972), an examination of violence; A Pedagogy for Liberation (1973), which became an international best seller; and Education for Critical Consciousness (1972). Freire's works are characterized by their call for revolution in education and their emphasis on popular participation in social change Read more

His writings have helped to democratize education in Latin America and to foster new forms of teacher politics.

1
I think that we have to create in ourselves, through critical analysis of our practice, some qualities, some virtues as educators. One of them, for example, is the quality of becoming more and more open to feel the feelings of others, to become so sensitive that we can guess what the group or one person is thinking at that moment. Paolo Freire
2
The oppressor is solidary wit the oppressed only when he stops regarding the oppressed as an abstract category and sees them as persons who have been unjustly dealt with, deprived of their voice, cheated in the sale of their labor -- when he stops making pious, sentimental, and individualistic gestures and risks an act of love. True solidarity is found only in the plenitude of this act of love, in its existentiality, in its praxis. To affirm that men and women are persons and as persons should be free, and yet to do nothing tangible to make this affirmation a reality, is a farce. Paolo Freire
3
Never in history has violence been initiated by the oppressed. How could they be the initiators, if they themselves are the result of violence? Paolo Freire