Paolo Freire Response Paper

In this week’s readings bell hooks dialogues with Glenda Wilkins (herself) about her experience meeting Paolo Freire. She provides insight into how he inspires her and how she was able to still be inspired despite the fact that his works often times appears sexist. She uses a metaphor to describe how she is able to isolate applicable truths from his work and quench her thirst for empowerment. “Think of the work as water that contains some dirt. Because you are thirsty, you are not too proud to extract the dirt and be nourished by the water” (hooks, 1994). Both bell and Paolo both discuss moving from object to subject in this week’s readings and the societal challenges the oppressed face as they attempt to be liberated(hooks, 1994; Freire,

However, I do believe that there are many in society who are unaware of their positions of oppressors in society and who through in carrying out their jobs are oppressing. Friere points out,“we can legitimately say that in the process of oppression someone oppresses someone else” (Freire, 2005, p.133) To somewhat of an extent some of these oppressors may be forced into positions of oppressive behaviour solely to keep their jobs and provide for their families. Take for example, the case of a teacher who teaches a class of delinquent students while still needing to meet the policy standards set by school administrators and policy makers. This teacher may feel oppressed as she may not have the extra resources necessary to teach her classes of disadvantaged students while feeling pressured to meet certain standards. She may in turn be an oppressor to her students as she attempts to discipline these students while using aggressive teaching technique to get them to meet testing and other policy

Could the administers who didn’t inform her of the workshop also want to hear Paolo Freire address these concerns, but be forced to silence bell in an attempt to keep her job and provide for their families. So the administrator becomes an oppressor while also being oppressed by the institution.
So why not stand in opposition with the oppressed? Why didn’t the administrator use her power to inform bell hooks of the workshop? This may be answered in what Freire calls the “false generosity of the oppressor”. The administrator and teacher may have a false sense of security through their jobs and therefore may not find any issue with enforcing the ideas of the oppressors. The oppressed in the scenarios highlighted above may be happy to have a job and be able to provide for their families, through the false generosity of the oppressor expressed though salaries, bonuses, vacation