Looking at the past must only be a means of understanding more clearly what and who they are so that they can more wisely build the future.

Every society needs to examine itself in relation to other societies.

This book will present some aspects of what the writer has termed the pedagogy of the oppressed, a pedagogy which must be forged with, not for, the oppressed (whether individuals or peoples) in the incessant struggle to regain their humanity.

Whereas banking education anesthetizes and inhibits creative power, problem-posing education involves a constant unveiling of reality. The former attempts to maintain the submersion of consciousness; the latter strives for the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality.

A revolutionary leadership must accordingly practice co-intentional education.

Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.

Whether the teacher is authoritarian, undisciplined, competent, incompetent, serious, irresponsible, involved, a lover of people and of life, cold, angry with the world, bureaucratic, excessively rational, or whatever else, he/she will not pass through the classroom without leaving his or her mark on the students.