They may temporarily allow us to beat him down at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. Building on the experience of participants, popular education aims to actively involve and empower those who are part of the process in order to promote social change. As a result, the students begin to address their problems and to formulate actions which can change their situation. The educational system has traditionally failed the majority of the poor as it teaches values often foreign to them brought over during colonial times. Popular education is education designed to help people, particularly those who have not traditionally have access to education or lack political power, to develop the skills needed to organize and take control over their own lives.
Popular education is a method that can prove useful to youth groups and other organizations.
More specifically, it is a rehearsal theater designed for people who want to learn ways of fighting back against oppression in their daily lives. Accordingly, the Theater of the Oppressed is a participatory theater that fosters democratic and cooperative forms of interaction among participants. This language is accessible to all. The theatrical act is thus experienced as conscious intervention, as a rehearsal for social action rooted in a collective analysis of shared problems of oppression. Mackay, Room 101 Montreal, Quebec tel.