Assignment 1c

The first blog I read was Shannon's. From Shannon's first post I learned that she will be transferring at the end of this year. From her post about Paulo Freire I learned that one of the main reasons why Freire was so concerned about the lower class was because he grew up during the Great Depression. He didn't just know about poverty, he knew poverty itself. He experienced it firsthand. As Shannon pointed out, this experience led to his passion for literacy and education for people in the lower class. The second thing that I learned from Shannon's post was that Freire taught 300 sugarcane workers to read in just 45 days. Like Shannon, I also believe that this is an amazing accomplishment! One of the ways that this information may relate to our studies is to show that our past has a very significant influence over our lives. Events or experiences that take place in people's upbringing can, and often times do, impact decisions and passions much later in their lives.

The second blog I read was by Danielle. In her first post, Danielle mentioned that she lives 8.9 miles away from the main SRJC campus. In Danielle's second blog I, first of all, learned about Freire's book, titled Pedagogy of the Oppressed. She explained some of the concepts that the book went over, including how oppression has been justified and overcome and the banking approach to acquiring knowledge. She also mentioned that 750,000 copies of the book have been sold and that it was dedicated to the oppressed and those who fight by their side. The second thing that I saw in Danielle's post was her explanation about how Freire felt that action should be connected to values. He felt that people should gain knowledge so that they can go out and make a difference in the world. What she pointed out can apply to our study of humanities in the specific areas of oppression and values. I'm predicting that both of those things will come up frequently in our studies in the next few months.