1.) I find the analogy at the begining very entertaining and thought evoking for me, as I use to work in banking/investements. In fact, one of the most crucial crossroads in my life was when I had to choose between this career and teaching. This decision was very hard for me at the time because I truly had a love for both, but when I look back, I realize that I knew what I wanted all along. I was letting society determine for me which career was more beneficial for me based on where I would end up on the "staus" ladder (my own internal struggle with classism). My heart had chosen long before I did. I enjoyed the variety in tecahing, knowing that every student was not the same, would act different, have different thoughts, and therefore one day was guaranteed to not be like the day before. how could I, as their teacher, ever want to change their individuality. Freire talks about how some teachers feel their job is just to fill "empty recepticals" full of information, information from their viewpoint only, showing their obvious thoughts ontheir on superiority. How do you feel about this, knowing that you will or already have come across teachers like this. Do you sit back and watch it occur or do you intervene on behalf of the students? Do you persist, knowing that these teachers may be protected by the system?
2.) (The solution is not to "integrate" them into the structure of oppression, but to transform that structure so that they can become "beings for themselves.")....I found this quote to be very powerful. I feel that this summarizes in one sentence the main focus of this class and our jobs. I sometimes think about the term "melting pot," and wonder, what exactly does that mean. Is that what America needs? Am I misinterpreting it when I internalize the term as a way to make "us" like "them" depriving us of our own identity, our own cultures being watered down as we are forced to "melt" into one? I would be interested to know you thoughts on this concept as we embark upon a career where we are taxed with molding and influencing our future.
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