Pedagogy of the Oppressed - Chapter 3

Freire sets out several criterion essential to a dialogical eduction:

1. Love - for the world... for the people... we need to possess courage, not fear, and a commitment to others, that is love... if we do not love the world, life, or people, we cannot enter into dialogue with them
2. Humility - we cannot dialogue if we project ignorance onto others, and never perceive our own... self-sufficiency is incompatible with dialogue... there are neither utter ignoramuses nor perfect sages, only people attempting together to learn more than they now know
3. Faith - in people's power to make/remake... we must believe in others, that they are capable of the responsibility of freedom & liberation
4. Hope - if dialoguers expect nothing of their efforts, then it will be empty and sterile, beaureaucractic and tedious
5. Critical thinking - which discerns an indivisible solidarity b/w the world and the people... which perceives reality as process, rather than static entity

Pedagogy criticizes the traditional 'banking' model of education for teaching students what the teacher wants to, or already knows, rather than what the students need to know.  This process removes the need for active participation of students, in any form other than some derivative of memorization.  To deepen critical understanding, we must help students develop an active attitude, so that they become the subjects of the education, rather than depository objects.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed - Chapter 2

Freire cautions against the 'banking' model of education, in which students become depositories, where teachers go to deposit their 'facts'.  This flawed method only serves to perpetuate the existing status quo, by telling the students how they should think.  Conveniently, it is often the oppressors which determine the truths to be deposited, thereby securing their power base.  In the banking model, an educated person is passive, and better 'fit' for the world.

Instead, Freire believes that education should spur students to critically consider reality.  Real education should be liberating, by presenting problems, rather than spoon-feed 'solutions'.  The way to bridge the gap between banking and education is through communication and dialogue.  Teachers must be students, and students must be teachers... the education must flow both ways.  As teachers listen to the students, they can better understand them, and the dynamic truths in which they live.

Living Within Limits - Chapter 13

Limits: A Constrained View

Hardin introduces the idea of ghost acreage.  The is the idea that the average urban dweller, though occupying and otherwise living out his life in a relatively confined space, actually draws upon the resources of a much larger plot of land.  For example, New Yorkers draw upon wheat produce din Kansas, cattle started in Wyoming and fattened in Missouri, water from upper New York State, electricity from Canada, coffee from Colombia, cocoa from Ghana, etc.

Ghost acreage is one argument against the anecdotal claim made by proponents of limitless growth that, 'it's OK because we still have so much land left to settle'.  While perhaps true, it may not really be 'so much' as we would like to believe.

Education Readiness

Science, like education, relies upon the concept of education readiness.  In education, readiness conveys the idea that individual children mature at different rates (just as young animals do).  Some individuals learn to speak, read, write, multiply faster than other children.  They are not smarter, but they were simply 'more ready' (Einstein was a very awkward child).  Forcing a child to learn concepts before he is ready is not particularly effective, and potentially dangerous.

Similarly, science is cumulative.  With the knowledge of certain things, then progress can be made in certain other, potentially unrelated subjects.  For the ancients to develop the model of the universe, what could have been expected but the flawed, Earth-centric one that was created?