September 8 makes 54 Years of celebrating International Literacy Day Read the Concept PDF. Benjamin Spock, M.D., Author of Baby & Child Care — An eloquent plea that Americans recognize the appalling frequency of illiteracy…a tragedy which handicaps–occupationally, politically, and emotionally–a third of the citizens of our rich, ‘advanced’ country. referencing, Illiterate America, Jonathan Kozol […]
Drawing a Picture on the Shreds of American Greenbacks
It is solely by risking life that freedom is obtained; . . . the individual who has not staked his or her life may, no doubt, be recognized as a Person; but he or she has not attained the truth of this recognition as an independent self-consciousness.
— Georg Hegel, The Phenomenology of Mind (New York, 1967), p. 233
This essay comes from my attempt to understand the stress I sometimes feel when I am with family. How does the individual come to know himself and what he truly wants?
My idea is that each individual, in his early, formative years, develops a deep, central set of desires for his life. This “core of needs” is the foundation on which the individual builds his self-image (inward projection of self) and personality (outward projection of self), and is the source of his motivation, explaining his behaviour.
Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people–they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress.
– Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
