Paulo Freire's The Pedagogy Of The Oppressed

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Max Fischer cannot be summed up with a few simple words. A plethora of descriptive definitions is still incapable of summing up such a Renaissance man. Max is such an extraordinary student that he can be compared to Paulo Freire’s idea of a student, as explained in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In it, Freire disparages the modern education system, “the banking concept of education,” by noting its destructive abilities of creating complacent students who regard themselves as inferior by those above their educators. This method is based on the idea that the teacher simply force-feeds knowledge to students, only to have it regurgitated back at them (72). Freire is concerned because students are educationally restricted by this method, however …show more content…

Freire believes that “those who espouse the cause of liberation are themselves surrounded and influenced by the climate which generates the banking concept, and often do not perceive its true significance or its dehumanizing power” (79). Max does not realize the effects of his power, and while trying to build all these clubs up, he suppresses the people who are in them. However, all this begins to change once Max begins to communicate and reflect on what others say to him. When Max is flying his kite, Margaret enters the scene when she lands her toy airplane near Max and Dirk. Margaret then says that Max has been a jerk to her, and then leaves. Prior to this encounter, Max dropped out of school and became a recluse, but after Margaret enlightened him about his behavior, Max became his former self and made a list of people who would be interested in a newly-formed kite club. Margaret was finally able to speak her mind and in doing so, she altered the teacher-student paradigm by having an open discussion with Max, as opposed to being told what to do. This reversal is an enlightening experience for Max because now he realizes that to become a better person, open communication is a necessary construct. From this point forward, Max will begin to reminisce Freire’s idea of an ideal student who switches his position on authority to one of open and free-flowing …show more content…

“Problem-posing education,” Freire asserts, “affirms men and women as beings in the process of becoming-as unfinished, uncompleted beings in and with a likewise unfinished reality” (84). We are always striving to be a more complete person, He also states that “They come to see the world not as a static reality, but as a reality in process, in transformation” (83). Most people might consider Max Fischer as inadequate for always being in the process “becoming,” however he is consistently searching for ways to become a more complete and skillful individual, like communication. This constant state of self-improvement reaffirms that he is the true Freirean

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