ARCHIVE - Paulo's Praxis

"When students have the opportunity to learn by their brain's natural learning process, they become the motivated, eager, successful learners they are born to be. When we know how the brain naturally learns, we can teach according to this natural learning process. Thus, the essential, critical question is how to do that--how to translate what we know about the brain's natural, physiological learning process into curriculum and pedagogy."
From Brain Based Pedagogy

Here in The Evergreen State College, specially in the Native American Studies Program, Mary Hillaire, David Whitener, Rainer Hasenstab started, many years ago, a Twenty Year Vision plan to offer programs using a Native American approach to education which used natural learning processes. In recent years, starting in 1996, Yvonne Peterson, David Rutledge, Gary Peterson, Phil Smith and Raul Nakasone inherited this vision and applied sound educational theories to continue offering these programs. The Patience program is part of the vision. The Patience program is entirely based in Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. We practice Freire's pedagogy and read his works and works of authors like Howard Gardner and Howard Zinn and theories like brain-based learning to have a deeper understanding of what we are trying to accomplish. As educators, our major efforts are directed to respond to Peter Elbow's summary.

Peter Elbow, in his book "Embracing Contraries" gives a summary of Paulo Freire's liberatory education. Elbow makes the point well that while it is relatively easy to claim a Freireian approach to teaching, it is much harder to actually do it. He summarizes the main points as:

"I taught for many years before I realized that unless we do the things listed above, all our education, all our experience, all our ability, is of little value. While Mr. Tell has not, to my recollection, mentioned the work of Paulo Freire, it seems to me that Mr. Tell's insistence that we as educators must work to change society resonates with the teachings of Freire. I guess, at my age, however, I plan to leave it to the young Turks like Mr. Tell to change society, if they can. I can only throw one starfish at a time."