Week 1: Project 1C

Dorothy Guajardo is a psychology major. From her, I learned that Paulo Freire was imprisoned as a traitor for 70 days due to his compassion towards education. Also, I learned that he taught 300 farm workers to read in 45 days!

Denya Beaudry is a business and information systems major. She taught me that the reason Freire taught the farm workers to read was because of the law that one must be literate to vote in a Presidential Election. I also found out that liberation theology is a part of Christianity that focuses of the "origin of sin".

Week 1: Project 1B

A very important fact to acknowledge about Paulo Freire was the time he grew up. During the Depression, while living Northeast of Brazil, Freire was exposed to heart-wrenching and eye-opening issues. The first-and experience he had with hunger and poverty had a deep impact on his life path. It is important to understand his background before forming opinions on his work.

Freire's involvement in education is quite admirable, since most of us do not question how we are taught. He looked at education as a "banking" concept; the student being the empty bank account that the teacher would fill. He was against this idea and for a more equal approach to learning.

Freire's beliefs evolved into a social idea of critical consciousness. To elaborate on his ideas, he believed that learners should question their social situation, rather than just accept everything as is. In addition to this, Freire believed that both the teacher and student should engage in learning, questioning and reflecting. More often than not, it is assumed that the teacher knows everything and the student knows nothing.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Freire, http://www.paulofreireinstitute.org/

Week 1: Project 1A

Hello Everyone~

My name is Lauren. I have never created a blog, so hopefully this works! I am taking this class because I took a humanities class a couple years ago and since then I cannot go a semester without taking one. I live in Petaluma, which is about twenty minutes from the Santa Rosa Junior College Campus; however, I always take classes at the Petaluma campus, or online. Because I have taken a few humanities classes already, I think it is funny that I am just now taking "Introduction to the Humanities." I am not sure why I did not just start here, but either way, I hope to develop an even deeper understanding of different cultures and ways that people choose to express themselves. I believe that much of the conflict between different types of people stems from the fact that many people choose to let differences scare them away, rather than try to understand why people are different. I look forward to working with all of you!