Freire and His Belief
Paulo Freire is hero in liberation project of education. His book “pedagogy of the oppressed” inspired many people to look at their system held at school, university, even family. He come from brilliant analyze kind of system education, ideology, person, and people in linkage. Traditional system tends to reproduce knowledge in dichotomical ways like knowledge for some class, etc.
He found the complex thing making education is fail to build human as their ability and character appropriates with their potentiality and to answer the problem happens in social reality. That is educator or teacher goes an oppressor by coercing student to follow and to belief whatever the teacher says without why. In the other hand student will be the oppressed one because they are under influence of system. Student has no freedom to say and to present their ideas if the system developed uses dichotomy of power. In this position student is very week, while teacher and institution is very strong. In addition, Student just placed as object of knowledge, while teacher placed as source of knowledge which in some extent cannot be debated.
He critics “banking system” which believed common term in traditional system to says student just a consumer and all thing withdraw from the bank. The bank system keeps the need of student to knowledge. There is no dialogue to produce new understanding of people refer to their social condition and basic experiences. Banking system is not democratic system, where all people in the “public knowledge” can participated to show the idea of mind and to reject inappropriate knowledge for their life. This concept is target of Freire critics, it is impossible to build human accordance with their humanity without the person is being a subject of knowledge.
Dichotomy of knowledge, duality of group between oppressed and oppressor, and bank system are some interesting spotlight in theory of education development. Traditional system believes that education is merely process of transferring knowledge from teacher to student. Teacher is the supreme because they are know many things, whereas student and also school service is the vernacular. Social status of teacher is highest member where all students should and obligated to follow the ways of teacher. Discussion is strange in this system, because discussion is alike an attempts to breaks the teacher roles in the class.
Freire project is how to build new perspective of learning. Learning is not one direction from teacher to student, but mutual process. Student is also subject of knowledge who has experience and conclusion to determine something is true or wrong, or good or worse. Student should have right to answer as well as right to ask. There is no superior position and coercing people, whereas all have a right and duty to determine their mine without boundary of dominant word view of belief. Freedom and democracy are the key concept to build this model. The poor one as likes the rich one is legal to have normal education. Education is universal right, so all people are free to access. []
