Now, and in the Days to Come

As capitalism is gaining its new victories, we small people wake up, and once again are heading only God knows where. One thing is sure though. Anna Sofia starts her school with other kids today. She is a bit nervous, and so are we, as her mother and father. Erja follows her to the school, and will be there for few days in order to see how everything goes. In our 40-minutes city bus drive to the school, I whispered to Anna Sofia’s ear, that I am always with her: now and during the school day, in good and bad times.

I hope it goes well, and I do know one thing: Anna Sofia is a brave angel. Even if small in size, but strong in spirit, and in addition, she has got strong wings to carry her in the stormy weathers of the world..

In the beginning of the school year I am again and again relieved by the words of Paulo Freire. Now with his posthumously published book Pedagogy of Indignation (Paradigm, 2004). Sometimes I am about to lose my faith in education, especially when faced with the huge dilemmas of capitalist regime. Is there power in education? How about in educators themselves? Or is there power in us, small people? In these private, almost imperceptible and closed moments of desperation, Freire comes to help me. That is why I want to share some of his words with you, for, as he writes, “the possibility of dialogue with the author is to be found in the words themselves, in the curious manner the author writes them, being open to doubt and criticism.” And here are two excerpts:

“Education makes sense because the world is not necessary this or that, because human beings are as much projects themselves as they may have projects, or a vision, for the world. Education makes sense because women and men learn that through learning they can make and remake themselves, because women and men are able to take responsibility for themselves as beings capable of knowing – of knowing that they know and of knowing that they don’t. They are able to know what they already know better and to come to know what they do not yet know. Education makes sense because in order to be, women and men must keep on being. If women and men simply were, there would be no reason to speak of education.” (p. 15)

“The matrix of hope is the same as that of education – becoming conscious of themselves as unfinished beings. It would be a flagrant contradiction if human beings, while unfinished beings and ones conscious of their unfinished nature, did not insert themselves into a permanent process of hope-filled search. Education is that process.” (p. 100)