Quotable Freire

[Marie Lamboray]

The following are quotes which I think are relevant for the Constellation.

Becoming More Human
"I like being a human, being a person, precisely because it is not already given as certain, unequivocal, or irrevocable that I am or will be 'correct,' that I will bear witness to what is authentic, that I am or will be just, that I will respect others, that I will not lie and thereby diminish the value of others because of my envy or even anger of their questioning my presence in the world. I like being human because I know that my passing through the world is not predetermined, pre-established. That my destiny is not a given but something that needs to be constructed and for which I must assume responsibility. I like being human because I am involved with others in making history out of possibility, not simply resigned to fatalistic stagnation. Consequently, the future is something to be constructed through trial and error rather than an inexorable vice that determines all our actions."

Pedagogy of Hope: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage, 2000

Cultural Context
“How is it possible for us to work in a community without feeling the spirit of the culture that has been there for many years, without trying to understand the soul of the culture? We cannot interfere in this culture. Without understanding the soul of the culture we just invade the culture.”

P. Freire, M. Horton et al. We make the road by walking: Conversations on education and social change , 1990

Hope and Dreams
"What I needed now, in order to gain a clear understanding of the experience of my suffering, was to discover the remote framework in which these elements had won or had been winning the power to spark my depression. At bottom, in seeking for the deepest ‘why’ of my pain, I was educating my hope. I never expected things just to ‘be that way.’ I worked on things, on facts, on my will. I invented the concrete hope in which, one day, I would see myself delivered from my depression…I dug up the archeology of my pain."

Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1994

“I am convinced that in order for us to create something, we need to start creating. We cannot wait to create tomorrow, but we have to start creating. I am sure that in trying to create something inside of history we have to begin to have some dreams. If you don’t have any kind of dream I am sure that it’s impossible to create something. The dreams push me in order to make them real, concrete, and the dreams, of course, also are surrounded by values of other dreams. We never finish having dreams.”

P. Freire, M. Horton et al. We make the road by walking: Conversations on education and social change , 1990

[Gaston]

Interesting! Our friends in DRC just received a 10 day training of somebody of the Paulo Freire Institute called Sophie. It was very interesting to combine her work with SALT. It focused on the cultural sensitivities, use of language and local context in especially the Bantu tribes in Africa. I hope Sophie will read this.