Paulo Freire
(1921-1997)
He is to be forgiven for the thorniness of his prose. He is one of the truly great citizens of this or any century. He sits at a table with Martin Buber and Cervantes. His liberation theology has its place in public education in the idea of people as culture makers, homo fabers, which give each of us our dignity and intelligence, this culture making capacity of all people.
In Freire is a kind of Che of education. His life was lived in a revolutionary manner. Like Martin Luther King he was always something larger than himself, a part of and spokesperson for a movement of people toward their own liberations. His life, in many ways figures as important as his writing, which was always lived fully whether in exile, under persecution, at risk and sometimes imprisoned. What he gave us was an impassioned life enriched by his sense of ethical clarity and faith in people.
"Pedagogy of the Oppressed" as required but taxing reading. Just keep in context: Latin American campesionos and urban blue collar workers. His most accessible and situated writings however, are his letters from Guinea Bissau in a book called "Pedagogy in Process" (1983, Continuum Press), and his interviews with Ira Shor: "A Pedagogy for Liberation: Dialogues for Transforming Education" (Bergin & Garvey 1987)