Paulo Freire, and educator from Brazil, preached a style of learning that raised many questions and confrontations. He spoke of rising to the needs of the oppressed and our duty to give them the education they need to succeed. He believed in having the poor rise together and make themselves known. He saw it as the job of those who are educated to take to the impoverished and enlighten them by means of an equal, one on one relationship, where dialogue is stressed. He also saw the importance of venturing into the world and gaining life experience. All of these components represent the Freireian model of education, a style being noted by many top educators. Freire's model of education includes a structure involving stress being placed on the importance of dialogue. Freire believes that in the relationship between teacher and student, there needs to be an emphasis on a shared learning process instead of the typical lecture style many teachers use. Drawing from my own experience, I agree with Freire. Lessons in which there is some feedback wanted from the teacher by the students always give me a better understanding of the lecture at hand. If I were to sit in a classroom and be talked at, not only would I be annoyed, I would also gain less from the style of instruction. In the purely lecture style, the teacher is unable to correctly ascertain whether or not the students really understand the material since she/he is looking for no feedback from them. This style of teaching also prevents any sort of self-confidence to be learned from the lesson since students aren't able to put forth their own thoughts and opinions on the subject matter. I have had many teachers who desire their students to not just be able to spit back the information they are given in lectures, but to be able to understand the material to the point where they could manipulate it and apply it in ways other than the format the teacher presented. This is an exc...
