Pedagogy of the Oppressed

This article was a little shocking and eye-opening for me.  First of all, it seems counter-intuitive to me to pursue a career in teaching if you don't have the best interests of your students at heart. By best interests I mean to give a student your best effort at allowing them to think, process and develop skills in the classroom that will help them build a productive future for themselves.  I was a director of a youth ministry on the South Hill for a long time and we had two sayings that we used with our volunteer leaders: 1. You are here for them, they are not here for you. 2. Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.  These two sayings were meant to remind our volunteers that the students are our priority and that any other agenda or ego-trip is not permissible and that we need to teach our students how to think own their own.  As students encounter challenges in life, they need the tools to process and think things through critically, they don't need someone telling them what to do every step of the way. Building critical thinking skills is imperative for students to discover who they are and who they want to be in the world.  The parts of what Freire wrote about partnering with students and stepping out of the banking system resonated with me because of how I've seen people interact with kids that doesn't allow them to shine as bright as they can.

The part of this article that presents a challenge to me as a teacher is in teaching students facts without merely making deposits. How do I find ways to creatively teach students in a way that is meaningful and empowering to them? This part did remind me a lot of the discussion strategies that we've been talking about in class and the way we as teachers have to be comfortable stepping back and letting students use their voices. I think that giving students a place to be heard and to be encouraged in their futures is a good base point to start at.