Week 4

Part 1:

Paulo Freire was born in Brazil. His date of birth is September 19, 1921 and he died may 2, 1997. He was born into a middle class family in Recife, Brazil. Freire became familiar with hunger and being poor during the years of the Great Depression, 1929. It was during this time that Freire started to view his educational prospective. He attended the Law University of Recife in 1943 where he studied Philosophy and Phenomenology. He never actually practiced law, but instead worked as a teacher teaching Portuguese. In 1944 he married Elza Maia Costa de Oliveira, a fellow teacher. The two worked together for the rest of their lives and had five children. In 1946, Freire was appointed Director of the Department of Education and Culture of the Social Service in the State of Pernambuco, the Brazilian state of which Recife is the capital. Working primarily among the illiterate poor, Freire began to embrace a non-orthodox form of what could be considered liberation theology. At that time in Brazil, literacy was a requirement for voting in presidential elections.

When Paulo could finally practice his theories a military coup in Brazil put an end to his efforts. He was sent to prison for 70 days. After his imprisonment Freire worked in Chile for five years for the Christian Democratic Agrarian Reform Movement and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United nations. In 1967, Freire published his first book, Education as the Practice of Freedom. He followed this with his most famous book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, it was first published only in Portuguese in 1968. This book is the most widely know book of the Educator Paulo Freire. His first English translation was published in 1970.The book examines the struggle for justice and equity within the educational system and proposes a new pedagogy. Dedicated "to the oppressed, and to those who suffer with them and fight at their side," Freire includes a detailed Marxist class analysis in his exploration of the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. Rooted in his own experience helping Brazilian adults to read and write, the book remains popular among educators in developing countries. The book has sold over 750 000 copies worldwide and is one of the foundations of critical pedagogy.

The first chapter of his book explores how oppresion has been justified and how it is overcome through a mutual process between the "oppressor" and the "oppressed". He writes, "Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest of human complexion" (47). According to Freire, freedom will be the result of praxis--informed action--when a balance between theory and practice is achieved. The second chapter examines the "banking" approach to education -- a metaphor used by Freire that suggests students are considered empty bank accounts that should remain open to deposits made by the teacher. Freire rejects the "banking" approach, claiming it results in the dehumanization of both the students and the teachers. In addition, he argues the banking approach stimulates oppressive attitudes and practices in society. Instead, Freire advocates for a more world-mediated, mutual approach to education that considers people incomplete. This "authentic" approach to education must allow people to be aware of their incompleteness and strive to be more fully human. This attempt to use a education as means of consciously shaping the person and the society is called conscientization, a term first coined by Freire in this book. I think that the book is a good source and he has great theories. I suggest everyone reads it.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Freire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVz_AOFuZ_E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6bMBWvoPp8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PemcNyIgxFs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedagogy_of_the_Oppressed

Part 2:

1) Antonio- He said, "We can't view it as us versus them or black and white."
2) Megan- I like this quote that she took from Obama:"suppressing ideas has never succeeded in making them go away".
3) Kayla-She said that the President speaks about how the opinions of all people should not be ignored. That we need to come together as one. That all cultures have their rights to opinions for the hope that one day we can all work together as one and demolish war and conflict.
4) Judy-One thing she learned was that Obama's father was a Muslim so he knows a lot about the Muslim religion as well as his own religion, Christianity.
5) Alexa-She thinks that the videos relate to Humanities because it is teaching us about our own cultures and to be open minded about religion. She is referring to the video of Barack Obama and I think this is true.
6) Christine-She was interested in all positive contributions the Muslim community and culture has given to our world.
7) Jared- He quoted Obama's "...interests we share as human beings are more powerful than the forces that drive us apart." -
8) Dinlaka- I think this quotes are very important:"There is one rule that lies at the heart of every religion, that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us" Be respectful and considerate.
"It's easier to start wars than to end them.
It's easier to blame others than to look inward.
It's easier to see what is different about someone than to find the things we share.
But we should choose the RIGHT path, not just the EASY path."
9) Tamika- She learned that dialogue is an important factor that we need to address in order to form partnership to help our nations gain respect for each other.
10) Vannessa-She was surprised about Oprah when she trusts her gut. When she wont trust anybody else before herself.

Week 2

Video 1

President Barack Obama talks about the history, cultures, and nations of The United States and Muslims. He talks about events from the past like the Cold War and the Holocaust. Obama focuses on religion and he uses a lot of quotes some from the bible since he is Christian and some from other sources. This was a great speech that focuses in the unification of humanity. He said we had to focus on the similarities we have and not the differences. We are in a time of crisis where we can no longer a ford to do that. He also said that he wanted to make it clear that the united states did not have any interests of conflict with Muslims. What I did not know was that thanks to the Muslims we are able to use many things such as medicine, important elements to pursue the subject of education, and many other things. I also didn't know that there were going to be billions of dollars invested in the subject of education in the Muslim nations. The president talks about dialogue, but states that this is not the only way of coming together. He talked about visual arts, drama, film, music, dance, literature, philosophy, and religion because this are some of the areas that have been around since humans first invented them or applied them to their lives. Obama was focusing more in religion and he might be using this as a form of applying what he learned from the bible and he might truly believe what he is saying. He said that its time to move forward and if we live in the past then we are never going to get anywhere. We can help each other by treating each other equally. and that's where he says " do into others as you would like them do unto us".

Video 2

Oprah Winfrey was in this video and she gave a very inspirational speech. She goes on to talk about her godson as he was growing up and then she talks about her show and all the different stories she has presented on her show. She also talks about who are her favorite hosts. She talks about how we are here to help someone and how we can affect someone by doing tiny little things. She described her story about when she was a little girl and someone came up to her and told her she was pretty. The part that stroked me the most was when she talks about the inspirational stories. The one about the flesh eating bacteria was very moving. That women knew that her decision could change her little baby's life if she made a mistake. She decided to go ahead because she wanted to look her baby. I think Oprah is a human being with great qualities. She has very clearly in mind what she can do to help others and she doesn't just think about it she actually goes into action with it. She is definitely influential for our communities and who ever come in contact with her. He advice everyone to follow our guts because they will never let you down. Ultimately that is what we have to do and know what is right for humanity. Because changing someone's life for good is the best thing you can do with your life and it makes you grow more and you can achieve what being human really means.

These two videos talk about how we should behave as humans. We might be forgetting what it means to be humans and it seems as if we don't want to be humans anymore. We are in a time where technology is being focused on and we are forgetting about humanities. We should still be aware that we can contribute more to humanity as we are doing right now. We can do it before is too late.

2nd Part

Antonio-I learned that the love of my life is willing to learn anything interesting from this class.
Danielle-I learned she is taking this class to fulfill her GED requirements mainly.
Mario-I learned that Mario thinks that the world is complicated.
Christine- I learned that she lives in Ukiah.
Leilali-I learned that she thinks about ROAD CONSTRUCTION when the word Santa Rosa comes up.
Tamika- I learned that she really has an interest in humanities and that's why she is taking this class.
Thelma- I learned that she is thinking about Global Warming when she thinks about the world.
Michael- I learned that he thinks this is a good place to live in because there aren't that many natural disasters but it is more expensive.
Stephen-I learned that he has never created a blog page before but he definitely texts.
Daniel-I learned that he thinks that there are too many problems in the world and not many people looking for solutions. That's right. I agree! =D

Week 1

1. What is your first name only (NOT last name)

My name is: Araceli

2. Why are you taking this class and what do you hope to learn

I'm taking this class because is required, but I don hope to learn alot from it. And maybe I will like it.=D

3. How far do you live from SRJC main campus?(For this I want you to go to google.com, then select maps to get the SPECIFIC answer; for this you type in your address and 1501 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa, CA to find the exact mileage. EXAMPLE: 2.6 miles from campus. The goal here is to use new tools available to us AND to know the distance your classmates are taking this class from. Every semester I have a few students out of state, out of country. You can always come back to edit this. To Edit in Blogger, click on COMPOSE, then you'll see the EDIT link)

I live 14.9 Miles away from Santa Rosa Junior College

4. Briefly, what do you think of when you think:
Santa Rosa?The city
California?The State
West Coast? The Ocean
The U.S.A? All the states and the flag
The World?Everything that can posibly go through my head, and mostly lots and lots of things all at once. The world has its mysteries.

5. Have you created a blog or webpage in the past?

I do have A myspace, facebook, and some other blogs.

6. Regarding computers, are you on a mac or a pc?

It depends because at Santa Rosa some computers are Mac, but at home I have a PC.

7. Do you/can you text on your phone?

No.