[MD] Rethinking Education as the Practice of Freedom: Paulo Freire and the Promise of Critical Pedagogy

[Ant McWatt]

In other words...

"At the treaty of Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, 1744, between the Government of Virginia and the Six Nations, the commissioners from Virginia acquainted the Indians by a speech, that there was at Williamsburg a college with fund for educating Indian youth; and that if the chiefs of the Six Nations would send down half a dozen of their sons to that college, the government would take care that they be well provided for, and instructed in all the learning of the white people." 


The Indians' spokesman replied: 

"We know that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in those colleges, and that the maintenance of our young men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are convinced, therefore, that you mean to do us good by your proposal and we thank you heartily." 

"But you, who are wise, must know that different nations have different conceptions of things; and you will not therefore take it amiss, if our ideas of this kind of education happen not to be the same with yours. We have had some experience of it; several of our young people were formerly brought up at the colleges of the northern provinces; they were instructed in all your 
sciences; but, when they came back to us, they were bad runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods, unable to bear either cold or hunger, knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer, nor kill an enemy, spoke our language imperfectly, were therefore neither fit for hunters, warriors, nor counsellors; they were totally good for nothing."  [Ant note: does that remind you of anyone who posts here "occasionally"???  Sorry no signed ZMM copies for anyone who provides the first correct answer...] 

"We are however not the less obligated by your kind offer, though we decline accepting it, and to show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take care of their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." [Ant note: Too bloody right as well.  These Indians needed a 'white man's education' as much as a fish needs a bike!"] 

(Benjamin Franklin: Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America)

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Ant had said earlier in the morning (Thurs Jun 26 07:18:11 GMT 2014):


Friends, Romans, Countrymen!

I would strongly advise anyone who is thinking of starting an MOQ reconstruction model for education that they read Everett W. Reimer's classic text "School is Dead; An Essay on Alternatives in Education" BEFORE Dewey and Freire because Reimer puts these two great educationalists in CONTEXT.  It can be downloaded for free from:

www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/dead.pdf

Reimer's text took me only about four hours to read but is stacked full of new progressive ideas (unsurprizingly it was written in the late 1960s!) that will make for a refreshing read for anyone disillusioned with the direction of modern education (especially in North America and Western Europe) over the last 150 years and especially the last forty.

In fact, Reimer's "School is Dead" book will be forming the basis of the new MOQ College of Arts which will be enrolling its first students towards the end of this year (in Liverpool). Paulo Freire is mentioned throughout Reimer's book so his ideas about education (though Dewey and, of course, Pirsig's too) will be the "guiding lynchpins" about how this new university will operate.

Reimer initially thought in the 1950s - with his friend & colleague Ivan Illich - that everyone in the world should go to school but after spending time - on the ground so to speak - in Latin America, eventually realised the stupidity of such a project in so many ways.  For a start, there simply is not enough resources in the world to give every child a SCHOOL education from 5 to 18 and most GENUINE, USEFUL education is actually done at home and at work i.e. in practice. 

Schools and universities also tend to support the status quo (see how they responded in Nazi Germany compared to the more independent Churches) and - just like right-wingers who ignorantly exploit the poor and marginalised - don't do many children much good in the long run.  Why do you think it's a criminal offence in many countries - such as England - for NOT sending your child/ren to school?

Think about it!!!

Ant

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"I used to get mad at my school
The teachers who taught me weren't cool
You're holding me down, turning me round
Filling me up with your rules (...foolish rules)"


"[But] I've got to admit it's getting better
A little better all the time (It can't get much worse...)
You gave me the word, I finally heard
I'm doing the best that I can."

(Lennon-McCartney, Northern Songs, 1967)




On Jun 23, 2014, at 1:01 AM, GMT ARLO JAMES BENSINGER JR wrote:
 
I've mentioned Freire several times over the years. The perennial and, now, generational "educational crisis" in America, I believe, results from a societal inability to answer the fundamental question "why educate?" We talk about testing and assessment and standards but few can articulate a 'purpose' behind the structure, and those that can (and do) are those that have come to see education as a servant to capitalism; the goal of education is to meet labor demands.
 
Ron Kulp responded June 24th:

I had thought so, the more I develop a clearer understanding of Pragmatism and RMP's MOQ, the more it becomes evident that the primary thrust and direction of that solution space lies in critical pedagogy.

I am currently still in the discovery stage and it's pleasing to see that this is a subject that has some history here.  To me, this is what a MOQ reconstruction Model looks like.