"They learn, on weekdays, such course works as may fit them for servants. I allow no writing for the poor. My object is to not make them fanatics, but to train up the lower classes in habits of industry and piety."
"...some minimal reading skill is necessary if you are to be a 'good citizen', but 'good citizen' here means one who can follow the instructions of those who govern him."
Although these are two different quotes, the first chapter is filled with this sentiment. Limited literacy can be used to oppress. I bought "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" at least a year ago but, unfortunately, have not read much of it (please assign some reading from it!). I think reading this text will stark my interest. I have some friends who teach at the college level and I think they all have read it but I do not think the teachers I know who teach at the K-12 level have read it.
Regarding functional literacy and its limitations, one thing I don't think the book addresses is the joy of reading for pleasure or hobby. It's hard for me not to believe (maybe since I haven't read Friere) that any literacy still has to be better than none!
I also wonder if the Sunday school teacher (author of the first quote) was somewhat untruthful about her intentions with her pupils. She too was being oppressed and had to say whatever it took for her to continue teaching.
"The process of transmitting literacy has at the same time been an invitation to a given view of the work and of the world and of human values. It is an invitation to scrutinize the world in a certain way and to consider how that world might be changed: changed in the direction of breaking down privilege, gross exploitation and oppression, and replacing these realities with the pursuit of social justice in a society where the voice of each person would be heard, and the equal right of each person to live with dignity and to fulfill their human potential honored."
Yes! How powerful and positive! This quote says, "Education is power! Education is justice for all!".
Too bad there is this:
"... just 5% completed elementary school..."
Out of all the horribly statistics (even infant mortality of 333/1000- ugh!) this caused a strong reaction for me. I suppose it shouldn't after all the statistics given about dirt floors, no sanitation, etc. but it did... and I can't say why.
One question that keeps coming to mind is, "Don't all governments want innovation, the best talent and the most efficiency? And can't they only get that by having educated citizens?" Apparently the book is saying the opposite. Limited education/literacy keeps people oppressed.
Macy, pull the book out wipe the dust off of it and read it... then read Karl Marx, and then Neil Postman (The End of Education and Teaching as a Subversive Act) and then just for full a gambit read Kant (A Critique of Pure Reason) and then chew on this offering from Stanford on Epistemology: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology/
ReplyDeleteOr start with the epistemology and then Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Now back to your post... you bring out some really thoughtful points especially the questions in the ending paragraph... the hardest question to answer is what do governments really want? Education can be power... or powerful... but when it only shows you your condition and no remedy where's the power in that?
I also think we have to remember that because the people in Ch. 2 did not need literacy to fulfill the functions of labor under the dictatorship, in much the same way that slaves in American history were not to be taught to read or write as it might give them ideas higher than their "stations." Governments sometimes desire economic stability, and if you are a dictator, you are going to be particularly interested in economic policies which keep your pockets lined. You also wouldn't want your peasants engaging in authentic literacy as they might realize the injustice of their own situations and rise against you, as eventually happened in that case.
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