The behavior of the oppressed is a prescribed behavior, following as it does the guidelines of the oppressor.
Paulo FreireRead
The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world. The more completely they accept the passive role impressed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Students must actively engage with knowledge to truly understand and transform their world.
In this quote, Paulo Freire emphasizes the importance of critical consciousness in education. He argues that if students merely accept information passively, without question or application, they risk becoming mere adapters to existing social realities rather than becoming active agents of change who can reshape their understanding and the world around them. This highlights the necessity for an educational approach that encourages inquiry, reflection, and transformation.
Themes
EducationCritical ConsciousnessTransformationActive LearningSocial Change
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on educational philosophy, one can reference this quote to discuss Freire’s impact.
More from Paulo Freire
All quotes →How can the oppressed, as divided, unauthentic beings, participate in developing the pedagogy of their liberation?
Paulo FreireRead
Critical and liberating dialogue, which presupposes action, must be carried on with the oppressed at whatever the stage of their struggle for liberation. The content of that dialogue can and should vary in accordance with historical conditions and the level at which the oppressed perceive reality.
Paulo FreireRead
This is the sense in which I am obliged to be a listener. To listen to the student's doubts, fears, and incompetencies that are part of the learning process. It is in listening to the student that I learn to speak with him or her.
Paulo FreireRead
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 FreireRead
The oppressors do not perceive their monopoly on having more as a privilege which dehumanizes others and themselves. They cannot see that, in the egoistic pursuit of having as a possessing class, they suffocate in their own possessions and no longer are; they merely have.
Paulo FreireRead
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