Feire's 6th & 7th Letter

A.White

2/14/2015

Reflections on Feire:

“We cannot declare that the students of such an educator will necessarily become apathetic or live in permanent rebellion. But it would be much better for them if they were not subjected to such a discrepancy between what is said and what is done,” Freire, p.98. I am a teacher now, and believe the balance between having structure and compassion to be a practice and continuum that teachers will constantly work to maintain. This is because personalities are different, and building rapport with another human can be a challenge. As teachers we must be flexible in our personalities and ability to meet students where they are; because we are with them for long periods of time, and we are role models. Freire in his Sixth Letter, discusses the interpersonal struggle of being a student witnessing meek teachers and oppressive teachers, he also gives his perspective as a teacher and how he consciously tries to find balance in teacher-educator relationships. I find this true for my own learner and teacher experiences, I actually work with children diagnosed with OCD, oppressive compulsive disorder and ODD, oppositional defiance disorder. It is an internal challenge to be firm, fair, and transparent, allowing the children to feel heard and understood. This takes patience and a multiple experiential approaches. Some examples are, ignore attention seeking behaviors, and providing extreme unexpected positive praise when is on task. Building balanced relationships is really a golden key to teaching and learning.

“The very fact that we are a markedly authoritarian society, with a strong tradition of command rooted in our history, and undeniably inexperienced in democracy, can explain our ambivalence towards freedom and authority,” Freire, p. 113.

Feire’s Seventh Letter, makes me want to jump up and down with excitement, that someone could put into words and print the thoughts I have pondered as a kid in school, and as a teacher working in a school. For the most part, school was mundane and routine, but at certain times in my life I have felt extraordinarily oppressed, stuck, and stifled by teachers, or co-workers who show up with authoritarian attitudes, closed-minded, and impossible to communicate with. However, my past work as a teacher in the Bay area, and my work here at USFCA, has been incredibly freeing as these classes and teachers have lifted this illusion that school has to be this fear-based system of control. I remember when I moved to Colorado, on my second year of graduate school. I just started a full-time job, and could not juggle everything at once; I remember the anxiety I felt around having to talk to professors about accepting late work, and being overwhelmed by prioritization. Well, my advisor, Brad Washington, advised me to take a week off from school, to catch up, then re-enter as I felt comfortable. Just his understanding in the matter, relieved my anxiety, so mush so, I was able do my work even better, with a clear mind. This lesson is huge, as we have all been students before; be transparent, we are all human, we all have things going on in our lives, some days we are on our ‘A’ game, some days we cannot focus. The authoritarian attitude takes attention away from the learning process to feed someone ego, probably unconsciously. Sharing life situations, or asking for more communication leads to better understanding. Understanding is the best way to figure out what a student needs to refocus, and move forward, then accomplish goals. This is transferable in and out of the classroom.

            Freire, P. (1998). Sixth Letter. Seventh Letter. In Teachers as cultural workers: Letters to those who dare teach (pp. 61-84). Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.