Can we change the world from the classroom?

“Let us pick up our books and our pens. They are our most powerful weapons. One teacher, one book, one pen, can change the world,” she said. “The extremists were, and they are, afraid of books and pens. The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women.”

On July the 12th 2013 Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot by the Taliban for attending classes, addressed hundreds of young people at the United Nations, urging them to use education as a weapon against extremism.

This quote is very telling about the importance of education especially in those countries which fight against discrimination. Education is one of the fundamental building blocks of society, of its prosperity and sustainability. However, there seems to be two sides to this situation when education is in the hands of monopolies and capitalism dependence may be promoted . Paulo Freire calls it “the banking concept of education” in opposition he proposes education as a “Practice of freedom”.

For those that believe in education as the practice of freedom there are two challenges: todevelop a societal discourse around the purpose of education and secondly to develop transformative practice, as teacher students and student teachers.

I don’t know if it is possible to change the world from our classroom but I strongly believe that promoting critical thinkers is a good contribution in order to achieve a better world!!!