Review: The Pedagogy of The Oppressed oleh P. Freire

The raison d'etre of libertarian education said that education must begin with the solution of teacher-student contradiction which benefits both parties. Dialogue is also a must-do-things in this world including in education. Teacher and students being both communicator and listener, there's no barrier with this kind of education that provides dialogue. 

But, on the other hand, dialogue can not exist without humility. Dialogue is broken if the parties(or one of them) lack humility. Men and women who lack humility(or have lost it) cannot come to the people, cannot be their partners in naming the world. Someone who cannot acknowledge himself to be as mortal as everyone else still have a long way to go before he can reach the point of encounter. Dialogue further requires an intense faith in humankind, faith to make and remake, to create and re-create, faith to be more fully human (which is not the privilege of an elite, but the birthright of all). Faith is an a priori requirement for dialogue. 

Without this faith in people, dialogue is a farce which is inevitably degenerates into paternalistic manipulation. Founding itself upon love, humility and faith makes dialogue become a horizontal relationship of which mutual trust between the dialoguers is the logical consequence. Trust and hope also a requirement of the dialogue, dialogue cannot exist if the party's words do not coincide with their actions and it's labeled as a lie. However, dialogue also need hope ; a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. 

It's useless when the parties have the love, humility, faith and trust but no hope on them. The dehumanization resulting from an unjust order is not a cause for despair, but for hope, leading to the incessant pursuit of the humanity denied by injustice. Hope, however, doesn't consist in crossing one's arms and waiting. As long as I fight, I am moved by hope; and if I fight with hope, then I can wait.

3. Conclusion

In this book, Paulo Freire is trying to tell people about how oppression can affect people's lives. Even in education, using the banking concept, which is not accepted communication for both parties (teacher and student), the students tend to accept everything that the teacher gives without other discussion. The oppressed ones tend to grow by thinking that they should be the oppressors, and it will be a never-ending story. That is why, in this book, he said that dialogue can be a good bridge for people. 

For Freire, oppression, whatever the reason is, is not a part of humanity. People have the right to free themselves, not be trapped inside of their shell. And I agree with the concept of this book that (might) help people from oppression. This book is a true story that happened in Brazil, and this book isn't being taken for granted. If I can make an example ; it would be the Indonesian style of education that still lacks dialogue, but they often take the banking concept that the teacher is the most knowledgeable person and the students are not. And it's actually not good for our future. Teachers shouldn't be the ones who give students everything that they know. 

A teacher is not a God who knows everything, and students is not that stupid. They might have some questions besides the lesson that is being taught in school. The relationship between teacher and students must have a dialogue that helps both parties to get better because being human is not the most knowledgeable thing. 

Even a professor itself sometimes makes mistakes. The conclusion that I got after reading the book is, Freire wants this world to be free from oppression, even in education. Because everyone in this world will never want to be the oppressed one. Let's slowly change the world to make it a better place, starts with communicating with people in a kind way. And don't forget to love yourself because it's a must. Love yourself, trust yourself, have faith.