Ana María Araújo Freire, also known as Nita Freire, has a degree in Education from Pontifical University of Sao Paulo and a PhD in Education. She is a lecturer in Education Institutes, Faculties and at the Catholic University of Sao Paulo. She has given numerous conferences and seminars on Education, notably on the History of Brazilian Education and the thoughts of Paulo Freire, her husband, not only in Brazil but also in the USA, England, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Argentina, El Salvador… Her works include: Education of Liberation by Paulo Freire (2001), Education of Possible Dreams (2001), Education of Autonomy (2010), Education of Compromise: Latin America and Popular Education (2008), Education of Solidarity: Latin America and Popular Education (2009); And chapters in books such as: Education of Hope (1992), Education of Indignation (2000), Ethics and Knowledge in Social Transformation (2001), Environmental Education and Citizenry (2003), Education of Tolerance (2004), Meetings with Educators (2010), Education and Dialogue (2011)…

Contact: Rua Sergipe, 424 São Paulo, Brasil. nitafreire@uol.com.br

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Nita Freire COMMENT COMENTA.pdf

The most famous work of my husband, Paulo Freire, is Pedagogy of the Oppressed. It is, undoubtedly, a reference work for educators, philosophers and scientists working from various branches, levels and positions around the world.

This work stemmed from his life experience, from an early age he was concerned by the problems faced by his impoverished family after the international financial meltdown of 1929-30; and after spending time with urban, rural workers and fishermen from Pernambuco, listening to them, to learn-teach without drowning them with speech. From his open, generous and cooperative character with others; from his curiosity and intellectual maturity; from the wisdom he showed in understanding and facing up to the problems of reality, valuing common sense and intuition. From his power to single-handedly reveal obvious issues from everyday life, and from his faith and love, not only for God, but for the men and women of the world.

His pilgrimage of hope began with a report in which, in the name of other educators, he represented Pernambuco in the II Congreso Nacional de Educación de Adultos y Adolescentes (National Congress for Education of Adults and Young People) in 1956. This report demonstrated continuity in his theory and he obtained the title of Doctor and Professor: “Educación y actualidad brasileña”, it was re-written at a later date when Paulo was in Chile and published with the title: Educación como práctica de libertad.

Experiences with the literacy programmes in the North East, initially practised within the activities of the Movement for Popular Culture (MCP) in Recife, followed by the Angicos Experience and in SESI-Pernambuco (SESI: Servico Social da Industria), and then experiences on a national scale with the Goulart government through the National Literacy Programme, all implemented through the application of his Method, pointed to education for the poor, destitute and society “outcasts”, as subsequently quoted by Paulo. Suffering as a result of persecution following the Coup of 1st April 1964 and exile radicalised previous reflections and practices, which translated into a radical deepening of thought and ethical-political-educational commitment assumed by Paulo through Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

Increasingly concerned by this topic – the freedom of all men and women – which was, in truth, the central theme of his life and works, Paulo left suggestions in all his writings for social-educational-pedagogical-political practices. From “¿Extensión o comunicación?” up to Pedagogía de la esperanza or Pedagogía de la autonomía, or Pedagogía de la indignación: cartas pedagógicas y otros escritos, or Pedagogía de los sueños posibles or Pedagogía de la tolerancia or Pedagogía del compromiso: América Latina y Educación Popular and Pedagogía de la solidaridad, Paulo was not distancing himself from Pedagogy of the Oppressed[1] but, instead “completing” it. Delving into themes or discussing new historical problems; sometimes clarifying doubts and answers going against his theory or even rejecting epistemological accusations or policies distorted by naivety or bad faith, he offered us ways to transform the world. A world that he never tired of saying could and should be fairer, more beautiful and more democratic. He knew critically and realistically that it is a complex theory but one that is possible to put into practice. He died fighting to the end for what he saw to be important: making possible the utopia of every man and women Being More.

Paulo’s visionary capacity lay, mostly, in trust, in giving credit to fellow man. In his faith in the power of decision, of freedom of people and in hope as an inseparable part of the possibility to be men and women of the world, whether on an intellectual, religious, sexual, social status, ethnicity or age level.

Mainly as a result of the founding of the Communist Party in Brazil in 1922, the leaders, committed to the legitimate requests of the workers, fought to establish laws to protect workers, against all exploitation of men, women, and even children in work, a notion which had the approval of the state power. He worked hard on organising associations of “class for itself”, generally through strikes and public marches that rejected the working class’ simple “class in itself”, whilst others moved towards the, then, Soviet Union for a union based on historical materialism. This was understood as the only way to deal with the needs, aspirations and desires of the working classes. Generally, after 4 years studying Russian as well as 4 years studying Marxism they were “ready” to return to Brazil. They then found a reality which was very different to the one they had previously known, and completely different to the one taught in a sectarian manner by the Russian “teachers”. Thus, alienated in the cold, distant and isolated European nation, they lacked the philosophical idealism needed to interpret the world and made the difficult discovery that those long years living away from their families and realities had been for nothing, or almost nothing. This discovery came, as could be imagined, with great suffering faced with conflicts in personal and political work, to which violent political persecution was also added.

So, Paulo, without declaring himself against what these obstinate and denied men were doing with the intention to liberate the oppressed, but with intelligence, simplicity and sensitivity, reflected on the observations he made of daily life on the street, in the factories, of work in the field or on the sea, and in schools. He drew up rigorous and systematic reflections about obvious items, situations and human possibilities. He thus created a revolutionary education, through which the act of teaching-learning should reject the traditional bla-bla-blas and promote epistemological dialogue in order to acquire knowledge. He went further still. Starting on a local level, his reflections lead a theory on knowledge that was intensely concerned with the possibility that the oppressed said their words, i.e. they could escape from the exclusive status of objects of an elitist and discriminatory society and become subjects as well. He was the builder, together with men and women, of the status of subject, of integrated citizen and participant in a society in permanent process of liberation.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed brings something special to history: using education to serve the political and economic transformation of the offended and subjugated.

I want to stress that Pedagogy of the Oppressed was not only an excellent work of science, philosophy, literature or education, beautifully and correctly constructed and written by Paulo. It was also his creation and therefore his freedom and way of reading the world historically and of acting in it. This showed he was no prisoner of this world. He succeeded by overcoming himself as a person and an intellectual, through deliberately perfecting his individual virtues, rewriting his work and updating his practice in the other works he undertook. It could not have been any other way, considering the coherence that characterised him and his focus on history and therefore hope and human dynamism. Paulo could not allow himself to remain still in the world; this is shown by how he faced up to it. In the same way that he would not accept dichotomised speeches on how to live or speeches separated from emotions, and how to read and how to simply be in the world, he demanded that he permanently updated himself with the world which involved integrating himself into it and transforming it dialectically.

 Therefore, Pedagogy of the Oppressed is a systematisation of his experiences lived, felt and thoughts from infancy with his family and in school which were recorded in writings on education throughout the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed is a synthesis of all of this. It is loaded with his passion for life, dialectically, relating emotion and reason, theory and practice clarified though the indignation and hope, love and condemnation, the limits of freedom, ethics, word and praxis.

Let’s ask ourselves: who or which organisation in the world truly fights for freedom today? Are we following the process aiming for independence of the oppressed? Amongst different peoples of Planet Earth, is there a deliberate intention to abandon the practises that underestimate, devalue, oppress and torture those different to us? Do we live in times of respect, cooperation, and belief in fellow man? Or on the other hand, are carelessness, antagonism and repudiation being established in those relations and statuses which have the potential to promote equality of rights and duties amongst the Human Beings of the Earth? What is lacking in the men and women who distance themselves from their ontological directions as human beings and that are devoted to barbarism destroying everyone and everything?

What can be said about our behaviour, especially since the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York? We can no longer blame the “followers of the axis of evil” – the Muslims. What can be said about the “democratic” North American citizens who carry out atrocities in the prisons of Abu Ghraib and in the wars against Iraq, and even the acts of “a white, well-educated, Norwegian man” who, with no satisfaction with no known target, killed almost a hundred “equal” young people? Young people that only dream of a better world?

What paradigm do we have now for the social cohabitation of civic responsibility and peace?

There is a lack of tolerance which involves accepting difference, whether in terms of ethnicity, language, religion, gender or social status. There is a lack of generosity which involves respecting fellow man, and that, in the end, does not involve rejection, but recognises Others to the dimension of I. There is a lack of hope that involves understanding the historical-cultural beings that we really are.

It cannot be denied that we lack Paulo’s charitable traits as a person and that he himself applied in Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

Paulo gave the world this love which is so apparent in Pedagogy of the Oppressed; it was his way of making his presence in the world felt, to which no world policy for peace and for humanist and freedom education, I’m sure, can be opened. Disregarding his contribution is delaying the possibility of a better world, which is fairer and more democratic.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed continues to be, unfortunately, true, after more than 40 years since it was written; we need to reflect on whether or not we want to find the path to true human destiny.