Seeing the world, seeing the words

Paulo Freire speaks about the necessity of seeing the world as it is.  It is a first step, prior to accessing language, which allows a more whole vision of the act of entering into communication, using those fresh and new words purposefully and drawing them into one's own heart.  It is precisely the humanization of the other that allows human beings to see the world, see one another as we really are.  That is the access point for tapping into language for adolescents and adults.  The student must delve into herself, decide upon love and understanding of the other, decide to place herself in a place of humility at the altar of unknown words that have real meaning.  It must begin with the asking of questions, the student seeking the other with his inquiry, seeking to see the world wholly and with new eyes, and only secondarily to converge upon the conventions and conjugations of language.  In fact placing the latter in front of the former may irreparably hinder a personal connection to people, and dehumanize the other by reducing him to a series of letters and patterns and linguistic rules.  And it is the great and honorable goal of language teaching to provide the opportunity for students to become more fully human, to become their best selves by developing empathy, solidarity and a thirst for peace.  And the language teacher so often becomes just another cog in a system of educational oppression, forcing the voy vas va vamos van into malleable human lives as though they were computers needing the data entered quickly and efficiently for processing.  The student needs to catch a vision of another way--and here is the liberating impetus--that he may enter into grammar with compassion, understanding that the forms are subordinate to their functions and not the other way around.