Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Something to chew on...

"One of the tasks of the progressive educator, through a serious, correct political analysis is to unveil opportunities for hope, no matter what the obstacles may be. After all, without hope there is little we can do. For hope is an ontological need...The attempt to do without hope in the struggle to improve the world, as if that struggle could be reduced to calculated acts alone, or a purely scientific approach, is a frivolous illusion." (Freire, 1998a)

What are your thoughts?

2 comments:

Christine Cosentino said...

A few ideas come to mind when reading this quote... First, it shows me that education is not neutral. Second, education is a transformative process.

Miss Buckley said...

Hope is imperative in the learning process. When students feel hopeless, they shut down and stop trying.

I watched some of the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" last night. Al Gore shows, near the end of the movie, that if we just take advantage of the technologies that ALREADY EXIST, we can get our emissions levels down to 1970s levels. He wants people to know that it is possible, because if it is impossible in their minds, they "throw their hands up in despair" and skip the "action step".