love

From the Freire conference.

While waiting for the Freire conference to begin, a colleague told us about being laid off. She was told that the organization could no longer afford her work and then left with a person contracted to escort her from the building. She told us, "They said that is how things are done now - it makes it easier for everybody. I think they thought they were doing the right thing."

In the introduction to Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire hopes for "the creation of a world in which it will be easier to love." The conference was about how people remember and reinvent Freire and we were told powerful stories of love and working to keep people at the centre of processes.

Funding cuts are hurting us, our friends and our field. When we say goodbye to our beloved co-workers, we miss them and everybody misses their contribution to our collective wisdom. Often we are unable to find ways for them to stay in literacy and that hurts too. A couple of my Freire conference friends helped me work in literacy during the year Literacies was not funded. It helped me stay connected and energized and, well, it helped me stay. Thank you.

My hope is that we can remember Freire and honour our best literacy traditions by keeping people at the centre of even the most painful processes and treating them with love.