Pedagogy of the Distressed and Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Noemi Bautista

BSE 2-ENG

ENGL - 205 (The Teaching of Listening and Reading)

MWF 4:00 – 5:00

Mrs. Normita Lugtu

Nov. 22, 2013

Pedagogy of the Distressed and Pedagogy of the Oppressed

There are many principles, method and practice of teaching. And no one can tell what the best method or what the most effective one to use. In this paper, I will compare and contrast Pedagogy of the Distressed by Jane Tompkins and Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire.

In Pedagogy of the Distressed, Tompkins tells about the true ideals that are necessary to teach. She clearly stated that on the top of them is particularly, fear. She uses her awareness of fearful teaching to relate herself and the teachers and pointed out that it’s normal to be a fearful teacher. At first, I was kind of confused because I was used to the idea that teachers are supposed to be fearsome and students are the fearful ones. The idea vanished when she stated in page 654 in the second paragraph, “Each person comes into a professional situation dragging along behind her a long bag full of desires, fears, expectations, needs, resentments—the list goes on.” This clearly supported her. All people, even teachers, have emotions. These teachers are doing their best to educate their students.

And in page 655, Tompkins said, “we exemplify a model of performance which our students succeed in in emulating, thus passing the model down to future generations. Ironically, as teachers, we are still performing for the teachers who taught us.” She clearly pointed out that if teachers use this kind of passing down of teaching through generations, more likely students of younger generations will have better understanding of their teacher. The students will have a strong bond or connection with the teacher which will help to build a stronger relationship for better learning. And as for the teachers, teaching (in some sense) will be lighter or easier.

There wasn’t really anything entertained me while reading...