Cultural Action for Freedom (HER Reprint Series)

In this volume, we have chosen to highlight the importance of education to human rights by reprinting two articles written by Paulo Freire (1921-1997) in 1970 for the Harvard Educational Review. These articles contain many of Freire's original ideas on human rights and education—issues that are central to his work.

Freire was a pioneer in promoting the universal right to education and literacy as part of a commitment to people's struggle against oppression. As Jerome Bruner recognized after Freire's death in May 1997, Freire left as a legacy his commitment to basic human rights: "He was a brave man as well as a far-sighted one. He made us aware of our mindless cruelties, and now the challenge to all of us is to do something about those cruelties." (e-mail communicaton to CREA Research Center, University of Barcelona, May 1997.)