This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Education, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of education and education-related topics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.EducationWikipedia:WikiProject EducationTemplate:WikiProject Educationeducation articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Brazil, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Brazil and related topics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.BrazilWikipedia:WikiProject BrazilTemplate:WikiProject BrazilBrazil articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Philosophy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of content related to philosophy on Wikipedia. If you would like to support the project, please visit the project page, where you can get more details on how you can help, and where you can join the general discussion about philosophy content on Wikipedia.PhilosophyWikipedia:WikiProject PhilosophyTemplate:WikiProject PhilosophyPhilosophy articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Socialism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of socialism on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SocialismWikipedia:WikiProject SocialismTemplate:WikiProject Socialismsocialism articles
On June 28, 2016, your biography published in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia was altered in order to discredit your legacy and contributions and defame your name.11Brasil Wikiedits, a group that monitors modifications in Wikipedia pages, identified SERPRO (the technical informational network of the Brazilian federal government), as the responsible source. While SERPRO denied direct involvement, it accepted that the alteration came from its network.
The changes made to the page included the insertion of paragraphs from a text entitled "Paulo Freire e o Assassinato do Conhecimiento" ("Paulo Freire and the Assassination of Knowledge") originally published by Brazil's Liberal Institute. These paragraphs argued that you and your work are the backbone of Brazil's backward and weak educational project and the origin of Marxist indoctrination in schools.
There it is, [Paulo Freire] one of the origins of our well-known Marxist indoctrination in schools and universities that instead of forming citizens and professionals for the country's growth, forms soldiers willing to defend Marxism tooth and nail in academic settings. (Rosa, 2016, my translation)12
As your widow Ana Maria Araújo Freire ("Nita") clearly stated in a letter to Brazil's then-interim President Temer, dated June 30, 2016, the absurdity and irony of such "hate claims"; by the present-day state machine can best be understood when measured against the tributes that you Paulo have received in this same year (2016), including your recognition in the USA as the third intellectual most cited in the world and in the history of humanity, and most studied in North American universities where, as Nita argues, Marxism is certainly not the predominant base of thought.13
These false claims and alterations are a constitutive part of the extreme Right's movement and project "Escola sem partido (Schooling without political party), already in place in a number of Brazilian states. The professed aim is to eliminate ideological indoctrination in universities and schools that, according to this movement, have been dominated for decades by Left-wing parties. The central targets of this "cleansing" are politics, gender, and non-Christian religions. The plan is to prohibit the teaching and discussion of all three in the nation's system of education and, accordingly, to rewrite history, curricula, educational manuals, and texts (Lehmann da Silva, 2016).
Notes
In English, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Freire. The modifications made in the Portuguese version of this page were eliminated after several days as a result of the massive protests.
"Aí está uma das origens da nossa já conhecida doutrinação marxista nas escolas e universidades, que em vez de formar cidadãos e profissionais para o crescimento do país, forma soldados dispostos a defender com unhas e dentes o marxismo no meio acadêmico." See http://www.brasilpost.com.br/2016/07/01/wikipedia-paulo-freire_n_10760292.html.
This letter has widely circulated in the Internet. It is also published in Spanish in the online magazine ALAI. América Latina en movimiento (July 8, 2016). http://www.alainet.org/es/articulo/178669.
. {{cite news}}: External link in |agency= (help); templatestyles stripmarker in |agency= at position 260 (help)
It's remarkable (but not surprising) how little this aspect of Friere's biography is discussed in relation to his work and Pedagogy of the Oppressed in this article. The text is literally permeated with Christian themes, language, and concepts. This is a gross—and likely intentional—oversight. It's actually quite remarkable that Friere was able to synthesize his faith with the beliefs of Marxist dialectical materialism.
level-5 vital article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
