배설물에는 우리의 모든 살생의 죄과가 담겨있다. 그 배설물에 의해서 우리는 우리가 저지른 살생을 알게 된다. 그것은 우리를 몰아세운 모든 증거들을 응축시켜 놓은 집산물이다. 그것은 우리들이 매일 계속 해서 저지르는 죄과의 증거이며 그렇기 때문에 그것은 냄새를 피우면서 하늘을 우러러 울부짖는 것이다. 놀라운 점은 우리들이 그 배설물과 우리 자신을 분리시키려고 얼마나 노력하는 지에 있다. 바로 그 목적만을 위해서 따로 설치한 특별한 방에서 우리는 배설물을 처치하는 것이다. 우리의 가장 내밀한 순간은 그곳에 들어있는 순간이다. 이때 우리들은 모든 것으로부터 떠나서 우리들의 배설물과 함께 있는 것이다.

분명이 우리들은 배설물을 부끄러워한다. 배설물은 소화작용이라는 권력 과정의 해묵은 징표이다. 그 과정은 어둠 속에서 진행되는 것이기 대문에 배설물이 없다면 영원히 숨겨진 채 있을 것이다. (p. 199)

Power comes from lying.

가난한 내가
아름다운 나타샤를 사랑해서
오늘밤은 푹푹 눈이 나린다

나타샤를 사랑은 하고
눈은 푹푹 날리고
나는 혼자 쓸쓸히 앉아 소주(燒酒)를 마신다
소주(燒酒)를 마시며 생각한다
나타샤와 나는
눈이 푹푹 쌓이는 밤 흰 당나귀 타고
산골로 가자 출출이 우는 깊은 산골로 가 마가리에 살자

눈은 푹푹 나리고
나는 나타샤를 생각하고
나타샤가 아니 올 리 없다
언제 벌써 내 속에 고조곤히 와 이야기한다
산골로 가는 것은 세상한테 지는 것이 아니다
세상 같은 건 더러워 버리는 것이다

눈은 푹푹 나리고
아름다운 나타샤는 나를 사랑하고
어데서 흰 당나귀도 오늘밤이 좋아서 응앙응앙 울을 것이다

- 여성, 1938. 3

My colleague and I were agitated over methodology of a new professor several weeks before the end of spring semester in 2003. Some of them were so enraged to have an argument with him. (How dare!) Anyway all students, maybe 15 or 16, did not understand his way of teaching. Even though a few said that it might result from cultural differences, most of them, including me, criticized him for neglect of duty, teaching. One of a graduate even asked the sole American in the classroom if it is the way how they are taught in America. If so, did we accept his attitude and methodology as advanced ideas or democratized ideas? Probably we might do on the premise that a lot of Korean still believe the American Dream. However what can be expected from the United States who indoctrinates American ideology? A country who forces students, even foreign students, to recite “The Pledge of Allegiance” and “My country, ‘Tis of Thee.” Or what can be expected from the United States who is governed by American corporations? A country who permits to sell Big Mac at public schools.

Anyway his instruction was excessively student-centered, to the extent that he did not have to be in the classroom. Students had a discussion and talked about their own experiences. But he often assumed the attitude of an idle onlooker. He had never even tried to give any feedbacks to students’ papers. The boundary between teacher and students did not exist in his classroom in a sense that any students could become a teacher. However unfortunately not vice versa. What he overlooked was the dialogue (which is mentioned by Freire) between teacher and student, I think. It might cause the oppressed, students, to fail to be liberated. Nevertheless, my colleagues as well as I could not avoid criticism. We were too naive to discard the banking concept of education. We, as receptacles, were ready to be filled by teachers all the time. We might not unconsciously allow a teacher to become a student, complaining that he did not provide summaries for us.

When I just started TESOL program. I wondered whether I could learn from the instruction based on the seminar. But at the end of the first semester, I was surprised at recognizing that it really worked very well. It means that problem-posing concept of education is feasible. In the traditional education, teachers and students need only a bunch of resources to store up their knowledge. Hence the rote memory makes it possible to recite “The Pledge of Allegiance.” Exaggeratingly speaking, students can be imbued with chauvinism through meaningless memorization, not knowing that it is just ideal. However unfortunately it also makes them to be restricted in the invisible system. As Freire contended, what the skill they need is to decode the meaning of “The Pledge of Allegiance” in the society, not to memorize it. That is what teachers must do for a change.

On the contrary, banking education maintains and even stimulates the contradiction through the following attitudes and practices, which oppressive society as a whole:
(a) the teacher teaches and the students are taught;
(b) the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing;
(c) the teacher thinks and the students are thought about;
(d) the teacher talks and the students listen - meekly;
(e) the teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined;
(f) the teacher chooses and enforces his choice, and the students comply;
(g) the teacher acts and the students have the illusion of acting through the action of the teacher;
(h) the teacher chooses the program content, and the students (who were not consulted) adapt to it;
(i) the teacher confuses the authority of knowledge with his or her own professional authority, which she and he sets in opposition to the freedom of the students;
(j) the teacher is the Subject of the learning process, while the pupils are mere objects.

Excerpted from “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” written by Paulo Freire