I took Theatre of the Oppressed with UNCA professor Lise Kloeppel last year. Theatre of the Oppressed is a form of theatre that deals with various real-life issues of oppression and finds ways to deal with them. One of the main forms I remember was called forum theatre. In forum theatre, some sort of action is played through. When the action is played through, members of the audience are invited to step into the role of one of the characters in order to try and change the outcome. Here's an example.
After this, one of the members of the audience steps into the role of either the student or the teacher (I can't remember which) and speaks directly to the principal.
To discover the beginning ideas for Augusto Boal's new form of theatre, we read chapter two of Freire's book. At the time, I skimmed through the reading and got minimal information from it due to the fact that the more I tried to read word for word, the more confused I felt. A year later, that information came rushing back to my memory with more clarity than ever.
The confused feeling I had was common with the one I had while reading the first chapter. And I discovered the same sort of clarity afterwards when I tried to explain the concept of the book to my boyfriend. I ranted to him about how confusing the reading was and explained everything that was said in the first chapter. His response? "Sounds like you understand it pretty well to me." Now, a few days later, I do understand. I may not be able to repeat Freire’s concepts with his terminology, but I can at least explain it to someone who's never heard of Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
According to Freire, oppression takes place through the dehumanization of a group of people by another group of people (who, in turn, are dehumanized because they are dehumanizing). It makes sense that the oppressed exist because of the oppressors. What many may forget is that the oppressors only exist because of the oppressed. In order to stop the cycle of oppression, the oppressed must realize that they are oppressed and work together to find how to end the cycle. They cannot end the cycle of oppression by becoming oppressors, however.
Then we jump to chapter two, which is about education. The banking method, which is mainly what is employed in the US's public schools, is the idea that the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing. The teacher's job is pour information and knowledge into the student's head and the student's job is to accept the information as fact. There is no encouragement to learn on your own. The picture above is one from Waiting for Superman, a documentary about the education system in the US. This film is yet another medium expressing why our education system isn't doing so well.
Fortunately, today, we have the internet. I can go online and search for practically anything. It’s no wonder students get frustrated when they can learn more from the internet than they can sitting in a classroom. If the education system would recognize this, perhaps something would change for the better.
For example, if a student were to read Freire and want more understanding before they spoke to someone about it, they could simply go to a search engine, like Google, and type in "Freire." With the technology we have today, Google can give suggestions of what else to put in the search engine. When I typed it in, I found that they offered Freire quotes, Freire summary, and Freire Charter School. Curious, I clicked on the charter school.
This school is located in the inner city of Philadelphia. It uses a lottery system, which is best explained in Waiting for Superman, in order to insure a fair admissions process. Looking around, it seems like this school has taken on some of Paulo Freire's concepts for education. The video on the website makes this school seem like it truly incorporates learning in a way that benefits the students in more ways than just test scores.
Thanks to the Google search engine, I can also find other blogs and such that discuss people's reactions to different materials. When I typed in "oppression," I found a blog by someone I've never met (and probably never will) that discusses the same exact kinds of topics we've been delving into in my senior colloquium class. Click here to check it out.
No comments:
Post a Comment