Paolo Freire's as a Great Educator - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... Paolo Freire was born in the Northeastern port of Recife, September 19, 1921. His parents were not rich and their family can be related more to a middle-class family. It should be mentioned that the life of middle class was greatly influenced by historical events that took place in Brazil that time. The Great Depression has made a great impact on their way of living in Brazil. Family’s financial status was also shaken after death of Paolo’s father. Paolo was prevented from his proper education at school and when family has sustained after the crisis, he managed to finish his school education and entered the University of Pernambuco to study law and philosophy. In 1944 Freire got married. He married an elementary school teacher Elza Maia Costa Oliveira and they gave birth to five children. Parenthood of Freire contributed much to his further development: “As a parent, Paulo’s interests in theories of education began to grow, leading him to do more extensive reading in education, philosophy, and the sociology of education than in law. In fact after passing the bar he quickly abandoned law as a means of earning a living in order to go work as a welfare official...” (Faundez, p. 22). ...
There was a great percent of illiterate people at that time and it reached 75%. Freire began his career in a challenging cultural environment and his role as a great educator and a philosopher cannot be denied. Freire and his Ideas Poor people of Recife were Freire’s audience. He worked in the slums of Recife. He thought that authoritarian relationship between teacher and pupil was inefficient. Freire underlined that the process making an individual literate was the first step on the way of dealing with poverty. Freire tried to improve his experience while working as a teacher of poor people. He expanded his work and the results were successful: "The results of this experiment were impressive. Three hundred workers learned to read and write in forty-five days” (Elias, p. 4). An urban teacher has turned into a national expert in the issue of adult literacy. In spite of the phenomenal success of his programs there were some challenges. He was a great educator and he made poor people believe in themselves and after that he provided them with information and knowledge. He inspired those people who seemed to be never restored to reinstate their minds and self-esteem again. He tried to prove that the first step in dealing with poverty was the economic justice, reform and opposition to repression. It is known that “Freirean-based literacy programs involve an examination of society’s hidden economies of power and privilege and how these help to inform students’ subjectivities" (McLaren & Leonard, p. 53). The underclass has been often challenged in terms of political and economic oppression. Freire tried to expand his ideas across the nation. He thought about a nation-wide implementation of educational programs. “This national ...Download file to see next pagesRead More