Blog Post 5 - Paulo Freire’s Chapter 2 of book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Freire’s describes a “necrophilous person” as someone who “loves all that does not grow, all that is mechanical,” and he said further that “[the necrophilous person] loves control, and in the act of controlling, he kills life” (para. 23).  If teachers are necrophilous, they squelch their students’ creativity and love for learning new things.  Instead, the teacher becomes the most important person in the room, forming a teacher-centered classroom rather than student-centered. 

In “[killing] life,” this type of educator limits what the students can do in the classroom.  Not only is the atmosphere in the classroom under the teacher’s control, but also all the activities that the students must complete.  One controlling teacher has the power to negatively affect students’ feelings toward education for years to come.  While I was teaching, I attempted to be the best teacher I could be.  Teaching is difficult work that takes diligence, and I strove to do what was best for my students.  During class discussions and in written work, too many of my students shared that former teachers of theirs had been controlling.  As a result, some students had turned away from their education.

Freire also stated that the “teacher’s thinking is authenticated only by the authenticity of the students' thinking” (para. 21).  This idea is an example of how student learning follows effective teaching.

I appreciated the notion that “thought has meaning only when generated by action upon the world” (para. 21).  Anyone can be the proverbial armchair quarterback, but often it takes real moxie to get up and do something valuable.  Doing must accompany thinking. 

According to Freire’s “banking notion of consciousness . . ., the educator’s role is to regulate the way the world ‘enters into’ the students” (para. 18).  Perhaps his meaning relates to English teachers having to decide which texts to address in order to teach specific skills.  No two teachers will decide on the same texts.  This also relates—I think—to Sean’s comment during class on January 22, 2018, while we discussed teaching texts with difficult subject matter: “As a teacher, it’s not my job to shield the students from the world.”  I agree on the theory of that idea, but sometimes life intervenes on what teachers can and must teach.