Connection between Freire and Krishnamurti

Upon reading from the writings of Freire and Krishnamurti, it is quite obvious that these philosophers believe many of the same things. They seem to agree on the fact that they do not like the world now, or how we are being raised to be in this world and also on the fact that our society musty radically change in order to fix the great problems it is suffering.

One of the main points that both authors talk about, is the changing of education. They both seem to indicate that “learning” begins at a young age in schools from teachers and parents. This supposed learning eventually shapes us into the person that we will be in society. We learn how to act, respond, and how the world works, just by what our teachers, parents, and peers have told us is wrong, right, bad, or good. In the words of Freire, “The educated individual is the adapted person, because she or he is better “fit” for the world.” We are taught to not question how the world works, even though it is quite imperfect, but rather exactly how to fit into it and not mess with the system at all. Both seem to agree that the objective of our educational systems now is to create a world where the students can easily fit in without questioning the system at all.

Both authors allude to the idea of people’s lives being taken away from them by this process. Krishnamurti describes it as conforming to the general path of going to school, getting a job, getting married, having kids, etc. while Freire explains it as taking away people’s lives and turning them into objects. Both get the point across that by blindly following this method of education, being told what to do and how to think, we are “approaching line mechanically.” Both texts explain that because people lack to think for themselves, they conform to materialistic things and ideas, such as power in order to feel as though they are truly fulfilling their lives.

In the end, both authors are strongly trying to push change. They believe that our education, school systems, parents, and society in general are “indoctrinating [people] to adapt to the world of oppression.” They believe that the only way to accomplish such a change in education and overall living, is by flat out rejecting the current method of education. Krishnamurti spoke of how it was impossible for a person to change who they are as a person without becoming aware of themselves and how they were, what they were. Freire explains it in a way that consciousness is being conscious of consciousness. Either way, these two authors believe in the idea that the only way to change education, is for the individuals to change, and the only way for individuals to change, is for the individual to become conscious of themselves, who they are, and why they are. By people becoming aware of this, each person will be challenged and “their response to the challenge evokes new challenges, followed by new understanding.” This is also explained by Krishnamurti in the way of people being pushed forward to learn without “ambition.” The belief of both people is that society must radically change, without being forced to, but by choosing to as individuals and as a whole.