I am moved by Freire's concept of "unfinishedness." It fits with, and also validates, because I respect Freire, my own world and self-view, my personal philosophy that can not be separated from who I am or chose to be in the classroom with you. He writes and I feel that he is speaking for me. I am going to quote this piece in it's entirety because it is so central to what I hope you will think about for this reflection:
That's enough! Use other parts of Freire's Ch. 3, the readings from CKCS to go deeper with these ideas and what they mean to you. You can also link to anything that you have thought about in relation to our last class with Juliette and Juan Carlos--in a follow-up email with them, Juan Carlos writes:I like being human, being a person, precisely because it is not already given as certain, unequivocal, or irrevocable that I am or will be “correct,” that is 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 presence in the world. I like being human because I know that my passing through the world is not predetermined, preestablished. 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 our actions.
I like to be human because of my unfinishedness. I know that I am conditioned. Yet conscious of such conditioning, I know that I can go beyond it, which is the essential difference between conditioned and determined existence. [. . .] I like being a human person because even though I know that the material, social political, cultural, and ideological conditions in which we find ourselves almost always generate divisions that make difficult the construction of our ideals of change and transformation, I know also that the obstacles are not eternal [. . .] awareness of our unfinishedness makes us responsible beings, hence the notion of or presence in the world as ethical. We recall that it is only because we are ethical that we can also be unethical. The world of culture, which is also the world of history, is the world where freedom, choice, decision, and possibility are only possible because they can also be denied, despised, or refused. For this reason, the education of women and men can never be purely instrumental. It must also necessarily be ethical. (Freire, 54-57)
"it is critical for all of us to own our own perspectives and lenses that we carry that will be different from those different from us. This sounds logical but we have realized that it is quite challenging to have this engrained within our own actions. We don't see our blind spots simply because we are blind to them; obviously."What do this week's reading say about the impact of our blind spots on others, how we might increase our perspectives, how we ourselves are impacted by the blind spots of others? What do these readings say about the ways in which we can all hope, we can all choose not to be neutral (which for Freire is to side with the oppressor)" How can use the "radical tension between good and evil, between dignity and indignity, between decency and indecency, between the beauty and the ugliness of the world" as a catalyst to see that it is our choice to exist humanely, "to decide, to struggle, to be political" to "know that things can get get worse" but also know that we are all able "to intervene to improve them" (Freire, 53).
Robin Goldschmidt
ReplyDeleteSeptember 25, 2011
CLQ: Thinking for Change
Blog Response 5
I believe it is very important to learn a very wide range of information, if some of it can even be called information. My believes side with those of Paolo Freire as the most important information that needs to be learned is that of ethics. People need to understand what it means to be human or act in a human way. It is important that people treat each other with civility in order to gain respect and to be a well rounded person. Another aspect that Freire mentions in The Pedagogy of Freedom I agree with him on is the aspect of hope. As we are all human there is a certain amount of hope within all of us. This can be applied in anyway, but I like to think about it as everything can be changed and every human has the chance to change even when they have made many mistakes in the past. Freire mentions this as, “All of which brings us back again to the preeminence of education experience and to its eminently ethical character, which in its turn leads us to the radical nature of “hope”” (53). By doing this week’s readings it mentions how the blind spots of people play a major role in everyday life. In the books it states how humans should not make assumptions about other humans especially if they do not even know the other humans. However, this does not happen very often as people judge and make assumptions about on a daily basis. I also find it very interesting when Freire mentions the aspects about being neutral during conflicts and other aspects of everyday life. I had never really viewed it in this way before. It is basically saying that if you just watch something bad happen and do nothing about it you are basically participating in the crime. That is usually my stance in any altercation, that I just stay out of it and remain neutral, so I do not have to deal with any of the problems that the two sides offer. Also, if you are in a struggle one needs to remember that the other person involved is also human, so would suffer from the same problems you do. Then if you want to envision or make a change to anything one needs to pick a side and not remain neutral in a subject and not let other people do the fighting/struggling for you. Freire states, “I like being human because I perceive that the construction of my presence in the world, which is a construction involving others and is subject to genetic factors that I have inherited and to socio-cultural and historical factors, is nonetheless a presence whose construction has much to do with myself” (54). I found this to be powerful as that is basically a part of what it means to be human is to be able to see yourself in the world and make your own little niche in it. Also, a very large part of human life is where you come from and your personal and family history. Another important aspect Freire mentions is that what you become depends on the genes that you have inherited and the socio-cultural class one comes from, basically something that is out of the individual’s control. So, often times it is the individuals fault with the future they create, on the other hand cannot do much about their future.
John Sansone
ReplyDeleteThinking For Change
Reflection 5
September 28, 2011
While reading Pedagogy of Freedom by Paul Freire, chapter three truly hit many important that coincide with this course’s goals and expectations. Along with the section on unfinishedness I felt that the first portion of the chapter spoke the loudest to me. I think this is the case because in my eyes this course is teaching me ways to teach people around me while leaving them with the inspiration to do the same for others in a never ending cycle. “To know how to teach is to create possibilities for the construction and production of knowleddge rather than to be engaged simply in a game of transferring knowledge” (49). This quote by Freire spoke to me in a big way because a lot of times we think that information can just be handed to the person next to us as if it were a baton or object. Instead we need to realize that every piece of information in this world deserves and requires some form of analysis for better understanding. Otherwise we are just simply transferring information to our students in the classroom leaving them lost and unsure. I believe that unless we know how to explain a concept we just learned to a complete stranger than we did not grasp the information from the person who tried to teach us. By not fully explaining the information we intend to teach students we are not respecting the autonomy of the learner. Therefore it is vital that all teachers respect the learner, whether it is a child, adult, or old person. “As and educator, I have to constantly remind myself of this knowledge because it is connected with the affirmation of respect for myself” (59). Respect goes a long way in life and this theory should be carried into the classroom because we are in no way better than someone who is less knowledgeable than us. In fact the more knowledgeable person should take responsibility to teach what he or she has learned onto someone else otherwise they might as well be considered ignorant. In the end we all are humans and we were all created by God, we are dust and into dust we shall return. This phrase speaks greatly to me because when we die nothing will be remembered in terms of material things only the humanitarian acts of kindness that we have done onto to others will be because those things leave a lasting impression and inspiration on the person or persons we impacted. Therefore in terms of respecting the learner all those who do not will some day understand how they have greatly wronged those people. Intern, “All discrimination is immoral, and to struggle against it is a duty whatever the conditionings that have to be confronted” (60). Discrimination is simply caused through obstacles that face everyone whether they are material, social, or political they leave divisions among society and then leads to stereotypes and social status. “Obstacles are not eternal” (54). This is extremely true and goes hand in hand with the idea that we were all born human beings and we will die as human beings thus social, political, or material things are simply obstacles that keep us from all treating everyone equally. Unfortunately obstacles can lead to suffering because until the afterlife we have to deal with the prejudices of today’s society. Therefore in relation to “blind spots” I think that in order for us to help others around us we must first truly figure out our own perspective through our own lenses. Once we have established this relationship we can try to consider those around us and open our mind, soul, and body to figure out how they feel instead of being blind to other people’s perspectives.
Jessica McKean
ReplyDeleteThe Human way
This weeks reading was very intense; I felt that there was a lot to think about and it was hard to take it all in. I do like Freire’s idea of unfinishedness because it holds some truth. As humans we are always changing and adapting to our environment. To think that we don’t would be a false belief. I really enjoyed his reasons why he liked being human. “ I like being human because I know that my passing through he world is not predetermined, preestablished. That my destiny is not a given but something that needs to be constructed and for which I must assume responsibility”(54). I hadn’t really given much thought to why it was nice to be human, but he made me realize that we have it pretty good. We are capable of thought and action and therefore we have the ability to do as we wish. I mean I guess that I have thought about it before but it is definitely something that I forget often. I also find this quote very inspirational; it is a reminder that I can do what I want and that I can succeed if I try. I forget that all of the time. I’m really good at encouraging others to do what they want and to shoot for the sky with their ideas, but I tend to either forget or somehow limit myself. I have great ideas but there is always something stopping me, usually I just make up reasons that are logical, but I don’t try hard enough to make my ideas possible. I think that this happens to many people; they find a reason why they can’t do what they want, whether it’s money, prejudice, or disbelief in oneself. We get stuck in the “there’s nothing we can do about it” thoughts (65).
I also really liked the essay “Education in Our Dying Cities.” It made some good points about the education we give our children and that it needs to change. In one part it was talking about how “(w)e need to create a vision and develop strategies to transform our children from angry rebels into positive change agents” (237). I believe that this is very true; we have many young people that are made at how things are but do nothing to change it. I feel like we need another revolution, this time not about integration of schools, but of curriculum. So that we can make all of our students into well-rounded people that want to change the rest of the world. Maybe, if we do something like that then those students will go on to make our country better, more fairness for the citizens, or even change the world by ending hunger. I honestly wish that the youth of our society cared more about the good of people and actively tried to change things. I would but I don’t know how to start a movement like that, any ideas? (We could try to do it as a class project; let’s change the educational system.)