Education Is Politics

As a Marxist educator, Paulo Freire thought that neutral education did not exist in the world.He proposed "Education is the politics". In the 20th century,on the context of social and historical background in Brazil and the whole Latin America, Freire created his own political philosophy foundation and ideology weapons on the basis of learning Marxism,existentialism,phenomenology, liberalism and liberating theology and so on, then developed his own unique political education theory.Freire was committed to his own democratic ideals,which helped the oppressed to recover the lost humanity,cultivated them to real humanism citizens and created a democratic and just society. In his view, firstly, the oppressed must be a subject who responded and transformed to the world to be a historical subject.In consciousness, they must to be a man who had critical consciousness. In action, they must be a man who involved in the struggle for their own liberation.In the orientation, they must be a man who constantly pursuit of democracy and justice.Importantly, the must be a man who cherished throughout the hopes and dreams of the people. Based on the above, they will become a real human.Freire made education as a means to achieve his democratic ideal. He mainly awaken the cultural consciousness of the oppressed through "cultural circles", and liberated themselves in the process of learning democracy and democratic culture.The whole process of democratic education including generative themes, dialogue, critical reflection and action. Teacher was in charge of the criticism of the ruling class consciousness and waking cultural consciousness in the process of democratic transformation.Compared with the traditional teachers, Freire gave new roles and put forward new requirements to them.He believes that teacher must be a politician who have a critical conscious,they must be a teacher who "dare to" teach, they must be a "coordinator" to establish relations of dialogue with students,they must be an artist who help students shaping and growing,they must be a hopeful dreamer. What's more, they must have some essential qualities such as love, courage, humility, tolerance, decisive and so on. However, Freire did not pay attention to assumption and theory, he mainly developed democratic practices and educational reform form three levels. Firstly, the practice of democratic education of masses.Secondly, the reform of democratic education at the school. Thirdly,training teacher for democratic education.Freire and his thought of political education were not outdated,but had important contemporary values. His ideas set a good example not only in Brazil, but also in Latin America, Africa, Europe and the United States and even the whole world. Especially, his unique democratic "Cultural Circles" used successfully in different regions such as Grenada, Jamaica and Australia. Freire opposed to copy his "Freirean approach" directly, advocated us reflection and re-creation based on the local characteristics. Freire's thought of political education was based on the developing countries in the third world,which has brought many enlightening reflections for the development of ideological and political education in China. It mainly includes the following several respects:paying attention to the development of democracy,leaming and using "Cultural Circles" creatively,focusing on the development of democracy,respecting life experience of the educated,emphasizing capacity of critical reflection, improving the quality of democracy,always cherishing the hope of democracy.