Education must begin with the solution of the student-teacher

Hear now the voice of Paulo Freire, a prophet of liberation, who declared: “Education must begin with the solution of the student-teacher contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students.” In these words lies a revolution of the spirit. Freire beheld that true learning cannot dwell in chains, where one commands and the other obeys, where one knows all and the other knows nothing. Such a system is but a shadow of education, a prison that silences the many to exalt the few. The truth, he says, is that both student and teacher are bound together in the same holy task—to grow, to discover, to become more fully human.

What is this contradiction of which he speaks? It is the ancient error of those who believe that knowledge flows only downward, like water from the mountaintop. They imagine the teacher as master, the student as vessel, empty and waiting to be filled. But Freire saw the falsehood in this. For even the teacher learns from the questions of the young, and even the student carries wisdom born of life and struggle. To deny this exchange is to deny the humanity of both. Thus, the contradiction must be reconciled: teacher and student must meet as companions, walking together toward truth.

Consider the life of Socrates, who, though revered as a philosopher, claimed always to know nothing. He drew wisdom not by lecturing but by questioning, by engaging in dialogue where each voice mattered. His pupils—Plato, Xenophon, and countless unnamed—did not sit passive; they wrestled with him in thought, and he too was shaped by their words. Here, long before Freire, was the practice of learning as a mutual dance: no master towering above, no pupil groveling below, but souls seeking wisdom side by side.

Look also to the story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan. At first it seemed Anne was merely the teacher, and Helen the voiceless, blind and deaf student. But in truth, each became both student and teacher. Anne taught Helen words, yet Helen taught Anne patience, resilience, and the boundless possibility of the human spirit. Their relationship embodied Freire’s vision: when teacher and student learn from one another, miracles are born. Had Anne only imposed, and Helen only received, the world would never have heard the voice of the woman who became a beacon for millions.

Freire himself, born in Brazil amidst poverty, knew this truth in his bones. Working with the oppressed, he realized that to impose knowledge upon the poor without listening to their lived wisdom was a second form of oppression. He taught peasants to read, but they taught him the language of survival, the knowledge of the soil, the dignity of struggle. From this communion emerged his great work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, where he declared that education must be dialogue, not domination; liberation, not subjugation.

Beware, then, the dangers of arrogance in learning. The teacher who believes he has nothing to learn becomes blind, and the student who believes he has nothing to give becomes mute. Both fall into the pit of ignorance. But when they humble themselves, when they see each other as partners in discovery, the classroom becomes not a prison but a temple, a place where truth is born anew in every exchange of words, every question asked, every doubt raised.

Therefore, O seekers of wisdom, embrace this teaching: be always both teacher and student. When you teach, do not only give, but listen, receive, and be changed. When you learn, do not only take, but share, question, and reveal what lies within you. Let families practice this, let schools embody it, let nations adopt it. For only then will education cease to be a hierarchy and become instead a fellowship of souls ascending together.

The lesson is clear: education begins where dialogue lives. Cultivate humility, curiosity, and mutual respect, for in these the chains of domination are broken and the wings of liberation spread wide. Remember always that wisdom is not the possession of one but the pursuit of all. Thus spoke Freire, and thus must we live, if we would pass on not only knowledge but freedom itself to the generations yet to come.