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mencabo's picture

Building a Curriculum

          Freire talked extensively about leaders and the dangers that come with their roles. Even though I think his ideas can be applied to most cultures and in any field, one specific example that came to mind when I was reading the last half was the issue of curriculum, particularly if it is a rigid one. Freire writes, “Many political and educational plans have failed because their authors designed them according to their own personal views of reality, never once taking into account (except as mere objects of their actions) the men-in-a-situation to whom their program was ostensibly directed” (94). Since each school’s curriculum is different, I wonder then, what does a balanced and effective curriculum look like? Also, what should leaders/”authors” do in order to accommodate different views of reality in addition to the politics that are involved?

            Freire also says, “People are fulfilled only to the extent that they create their world (which is a human world), and create it with their transforming labor” (145). If many educators and schools promote a student-centered approach to teaching, then it seems logical to consider the students’ sense of fulfillment. How do we know if/when students gain a sense of fulfillment? Or maybe it is better to ask, in what ways can educators guide students so that they can find “labor” that is fulfilling? By labor I mean anything from homework & projects to their potential careers. To tie it back to my earlier paragraph, how does the curriculum create space for fulfillment and “transforming labor?”

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