the critical.

photo

can i just say,

i am (so far) beyond inspired 

by my classes this semester.

i've just started my readings, 

and i can feel one in particular,

changing the way i think about things.

about education,

development

oppression,

learning and identity.

all this is embedded in a theory called 

critical pedagogy.

all i'm reading is a course primer,

but paulo freire is the real genius.

dude taught the dangerous and threatening (sarcasm)

poor, oppressed children in brazil.

and when he got kicked out of the country for his

apparent extreme.... love?... he just moved to chile

and picked up from there. 

reading tonight, i came across a passage

where freire calls students and teachers,

"(to) be curiously impatient together, 

produce something together,

and resist together the obstacles that prevent the flowering of our joy...

Hope is a natural, possible, and necessary

impetus in the context of our unfinishedness.

Hope is an indispensable seasoning in our human,

historical experience" 

can we just stop and absorb that for a minute.

first of all, i love that he thinks of learners as 

curiously impatient.

that is such a perfect phrase.

and the fact that he thinks of us as unfinished,

lets hope in, in a whole new way. 

even though this masters program is 

interesting and inspiring in so many ways,

sometimes i secretly worry about pursuing education,

because at moments i can't imagine myself as a teacher all my life.

but passages and theories like this,

reassure me in some calm, quiet way. 

maybe i'm not sure where that calm and quiet way may lead to, 

but i think i'm excited to find out.

xo

alli