I wanted to be a math teacher in the United States. My idea of a math teacher is someone who would spend an inordinate amount of time studying mathematics and sharing the knowledge with the students.
To get a teaching certificate, I needed to pass a series of classes at the local university.
To get get a teaching certificate, I was forced to read Paulo Freire.
Freire wanted to transform the school from an institution focused on learning to one focused on political struggle.
Not to say bad things about Brazil, but I found "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" to be juvenile.
From an intellectual perspective, the ideas put forward by Freire are just base blabbering.
To become a teacher, I was required to write an essay about how I would use education as a praxis in the social revolution.
I thought it absurd. I wanted to help children learn to reason. I did not want to stuff political nonsense into their brains.
The two problems with Freire's idea that schools should be used as a tool in political struggle are:
- Turning schools into a political tool de-emphasizes real education.
- The people who rise to the top through the political struggle will simply become the next generation of oppressor.
I argued against using schools for political struggle. I flunked the course and they barred me from the classroom.
Anyway, if you know people who are thinking of moving from Brazil to the US for education. Our schools have re-organized around the framework developed by Freire. The teaching schools push out people interested in math and science in favor of people with radical ideologies.
RE: The Brain Drain.