Educator Paulo Freire's concept

Literacy empowers the masses

Shazzad Khan

A great educator of the masses, Freire was able to draw upon, and weave together, a number of strands of thinking about educational practice and liberation. Paulo Freire was able to take the discussion on several steps with his insistence that dialogue involves respect. It should not involve one person acting on another, but rather people working with each other. Paulo Freire was born in 1921 and died in 1997. This year is his 10th death anniversary. He was a radical Brazilian educator known for his methods of using everyday words and ideas to teach the non-literates to read and write - and to be critically inquisitive about the prevailing social and political systems.
   His Cultural Action for Freedom serves as a primer for those exploring the world of adult education, non-formal education and the process of concientizacion (critical consciousness). Published in 1970, this book presents the ideas of culture of silence, denunciation-annunciation, adult literacy as a process of empowerment and education as cultural action for freedom.
   Freire refined the traditional education methods beginning in the late 1950s during literacy campaigns among the peasants in the poverty-stricken northeast of Brazil. He propounded them in his best-selling book, "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" in 1970.
   Paulo Freire has left a significant mark on thinking about progressive practice. His Pedagogy of the Oppressed has become one of the most quoted educational texts in the world, especially in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Freire was able to draw upon, and wove together, a number of strands of thinking about educational practice and liberation. Sometimes even claims are made for his work eg "the most significant educational thinker of the twentieth century".
   Five aspects of Paulo Freire's work have a particular significance for our purposes here. First, his emphasis on dialogue has struck a very strong chord with those concerned with popular and informal education. Given that informal education is a dialogical (or conversational) rather than a curricula form this is hardly surprising. However, Paulo Freire was able to take the discussion on several steps with his insistence that dialogue involves respect. It should not involve one person acting on another, but rather people working with each other. Too much education, Paulo Freire argues, involves "banking" - the educator making "deposits" in the educatee.
   Second, Paulo Freire was concerned with praxis - actions that are informed and linked to certain values with continuous reflections. Dialogue is not just about deepening understanding - but is part of making a difference in the world. Dialogue in itself is a cooperative activity involving respect. The process is important and can be seen as enhancing community and building social capital - to lead us to act in the ways that make for justice and human flourishing. Informal and popular educators have had a longstanding orientation to action - so the emphasis on change in the world was welcome. But there was a sting in the tail. Paulo Freire argued for informed action and as such provided a useful counterbalance to those who want to diminish theory. That means theory and practice go hand in hand with action-reflection-action or praxis.
   Freire's insistence on situating educational activity in the lived experience of participants has opened up a series of possibilities for the way informal educators can approach practice. His concern to look for words that have the possibility of generating new ways of naming and acting in the world when working with people around literacy, is a good example of this.
   A number of informal educators have connected with Paulo Freire's use of metaphors drawn from Christian theology. An example of this is the way in which the divide between teachers and learners can be transcended. In part, this is to occur as learners develop their consciousness, but mainly it comes through the "class suicide" or "Easter experience" of the teacher.
   Despite Freire's worldwide renounce as progressive educationist, his Brazilian professional world collapsed in 1964, after a rightwing military coup in his homeland supported by USA. He was jailed for 75 days as a subversive radical educationist and spent more than 15 years in exile. Brazil stayed under military rule for two decades - during which the government banned his theories on education.
   Freire's education model revolves around certain basic principles. These include subject to subject relation among human beings, democratisation of culture for all, problem solving oriented learning, reading the word for reading the world, humanisation for upholding humanity, dialogical praxis and contextualisation of educational issues.
   It goes without saying that Freirean education model has much potential for spreading non-formal (also formal) education in Bangladesh. Freire viewed literacy and continuing education as a means for democratisation of culture among the rural and urban non-literate people. This undoubtedly has profound implications for sustainable democracy in Bangladesh against the backdrop that over 70 million people are non-literate (not illiterate) and the government is determined to eradicate illiteracy through popular education movement.
   If the popular education model of Paulo Freire is adopted and adapted in the literacy campaign, the future literate people of the country will develop capacity for critical thought to work democratically within popular organisations. More importantly, practice of three ethical values in the education arena, viz. freedom and human rights, critical dialogue (not polemics), and respect for creativity can make up a democratic culture in the organisations that are promoting and want to promote non-formal participatory education in Bangladesh. In this regard, both government and NGOs can do in-depth study on Paulo Freire's life and work, and contextualise his education model for Bangladesh situation. Although practised in very limited scope, for experiential learning they can even take support from those implementing Freire's education theories and model for their literacy and sustainable development programme. Organisations having adopted Freirean approach in Bangladesh so far are: BRAC, FIVDB, Proshika, ActionAid's REFLECT, CARE, etc.
   Paulo Freire wrote two dozen books, among which popularly known are Cultural Action for Freedom, Education for Critical Consciousness, Politics of Education, Pedagogy in Process: The Letters to Guinea-Bissau, Pedagogy of Hope, etc. He received 31 honorary doctoral degrees from home and abroad.
   Freire talked about feeling of love, hope and attachment for liberation and humanisation. He pointed out that love is instrumental in humanising the self and humanising the world which could be achieved through a participatory, modest and empowering learning process. This articulation of Freire was, is and will continue to be a source of inspiration to human being across the world.
   With his death he left behind a legacy of education of political nature for the emancipation of the oppressed and wretched of the world.
   The writer is a development activist and now working with Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF). Email: Shazzad@manusher.org

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Dr. Turin Chowdhury

People are becoming more and more concerned and conscious about their food habit. This indeed is a very positive sign. In this era of mechanisation we are going more and more away from physical labour, the scientists are discovering the relative bad effects of meat products and threats like Mad Cow or Bird Flue diseases are emerging to affect our dietary habit. On the other hand the spread of fast food culture, more consumption of instant foods of lower nutrition value due to our busy daily life is influencing the health of the people in general. As we are facing these lifestyle related problems, the issue of vegetarian diet can be treated as a safe alternative to some extent.
   Vegetarianism may have been common in the Indian subcontinent as early as the 2nd millennium BC. Vegetarians in Europe were used to be called "Pythagoreans" after the great mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras and his followers, who abstained from eating meat in the 6th century BC. But it is claimed that the word "vegetarian" was invented with the formation of the first Vegetarian Society in 1847.
   
   Types of vegetarian diet
   Depending on the degrees to which the individual restrains from taking animal origin food we can identify several subtypes:
   * Lacto Vegetarians: They eat dairy products, but no eggs or fish, flesh or fowl.
   * Lacto-ovo Vegetarians: They eat both dairy products and eggs but restrain from eating animal flesh. Lacto ovo-vegetarians are the majority group amongst vegetarians and our discussion is also linked to this definition.
   * Ovo Vegetarians: They eat eggs, but no animal flesh or dairy products.
   * Pesco Vegetarians: They eat dairy, eggs and fish, but no poultry or red meat.
   * Semi-Vegetarians: They eat dairy, eggs, chicken and fish, but no red meat.
   * Vegans: They eat no animal products at all, avoid all animal products, i.e. fish, flesh, fowl, eggs and dairy products.
   * Fruitarianism: This a diet of only fruit, nuts, seeds, and other plant matter that can be gathered without harming the plant.
   Vegetarian diet: the confusion
   There has always been confusion among the general people about the vegetarian diet. Is it really an option to consider? Being a vegetarian can we get all the nutrients our body needs? Often people think that, being a vegetarian it will be very difficult to fulfill the dietary need of the body, specially the Protein. One thing is clear that being a vegetarian does not mean our diet will be lacking in protein. There are lots of plant foods which contain good amount of protein. Good vegetarian protein sources are nuts and seeds, pulses, soya products, cereals, eggs and dairy products. A well-balanced vegetarian diet will easily supply all the protein and essential amino acids to meet the body's requirements.
   Vegetable products do not contain cholesterol and only the animal products do. High blood cholesterol is linked with heart disease. Other essential constituents of a balanced diet are carbohydrates and fibre. Animal products contain no fibre or complex carbohydrate. High-fibre (high-cellulose) vegetable foodstuff is healthy choices for person's nutrition needs. Lettuce, broccoli, tomato, banana, all cereals and grains (as for example bread and pasta), potatoes and rice are excellent vegetable source of carbohydrate and fibers. Complex carbohydrate along with lots of fibre should be eaten in proper proportion for maximum healthiness. Hence we can see that the three major element of the diet can easily be found from the vegetarian diet source. The other desired nutrients for a balanced diet like Vitamins, Minerals like Iron, Calcium etc can also be obtained from the vegetarian diet source. Important protective antioxidant nutrients are also found in fresh fruit and vegetables. It is believed that these nutrients play a major role in reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, etc. A high consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables is an added benefit of vegetarian diets.
   
   Health benefits of vegetarian diet
   Researchers have found some evidence of health related benefits of the vegetarian diet. A vegetarian can reduce the risk from certain cancers. Incidence of lung and colorectal cancer is lesser in vegetarians than in non-vegetarians. Reduced colorectal cancer risk is associated with increased eating of fibre, vegetables, and fruits. Vegetarianism can decrease the likelihood of heart disease. Vegetarians are likely to have a lower incidence of hypertension than non-vegetarians. A well-planned vegetarian diet may be useful in the prevention and treatment of renal disease. Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than non-vegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease.
   Surely having so many outbreaks of diseases in the meat related industry is pressing us to have a second thought for alternatives. But we should also remember that, only being a vegetarian does not guarantee high-quality health. Vegetarian diets can be healthful and nutritionally sound if they are carefully planned to include essential nutrients. A well-planned vegetarian diet is a healthy way to meet our nutritional needs. However, a vegetarian diet can be unhealthy if it contains too much calories and not enough important nutrients. Eating a well-balanced diet that makes available all the right nutrients generally gives platform for healthy living. Regular exercise and an active lifestyle also help regulate our health and fitness. In the long run we need balanced diet of mixed type, moderate life style, and regular physical exercise to achieve the goal of good health.
   E-mail: dr.turin@gmail.com

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Penalize the Smokers

Mohammad Shafiqul Islam

Smoking is really injurious to health. Smokers are nearer to death. Smoking causes a range of diseases that no one ever suspected including stomach cancers. Smoking affects virtually every organ of the body. It has been known for decades that smoking is bad for health, but the current report shows that it's even worse. Smoking kills people in different ways in different countries. Smoking doesn't just affect the smoker. It also affects other people's health around the smoker. Quitting this bad habit will reduce the risks for diseases and improve health. So, it is very important to give up this bad habit.
   The World Health Organization (WHO) has decided to launch a campaign on May 31 entitled: No Tobacco Day and the slogan is - Tobacco and Poverty. The slogan explains the link that literally exists between tobacco and poverty, and how the use of tobacco, especially by poor people who are the biggest consumers, can inflict harmful consequences. WHO notes that the tobacco consumption is still expanding, especially in the developing countries. Tobacco is the fourth most common risk factor for disease worldwide.
   The law in Bangladesh forbids public smoking by law, which has not been properly enforced because of poor governance. People still smoke even in the bus causing difficulties for the non-smokers and patients who have to travel by bus.
   Any direct or indirect advertising of tobacco products and the sale of cigarettes should be banned. Anyone caught smoking in public places will be fined Tk. 50 as per the law, which is not enough. It is important that the government gets much tougher on the smokers as well as with the tobacco industry. Many who are against smoking believe that the government should ban smoking and penalize the smokers who smoke in public places more severely.

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