Thursday, April 30, 2009

Quote of a length of time to be named later!

I am often amazed to hear academics complain about the complexity of a particular discourse because of its alleged lack of clarity. It is as if they have assumed that there is a mono-discourse that is characterized by its clarity and is also equally available to all. If one begins to probe the issue of clarity, we soon realize that it is class specific, thus favoring those of that class in the meaning-making process--Some gink named Donaldo Macedo, in his introduction to the 30th anniversary edition of Paulo Friere's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I will never make it through this book.

One more: "Now we will no longer be a dead weight on the cooperative farm!"--Alleged South American peasant after only "a few hours of [Freirian] class," as quoted in the foreword by Richard Shaull.

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