... There Is No Valid Teaching From

Educators Need To Know What Happens In The World Of The Children With Whom They Work. They Need To Know The Universe Of Their Dreams, The Language With Which They Skillfully Defend Themselves From The Aggressiveness Of Their World, What They Know Independently Of The School, And How They Know It.

It Would Be Extremely Naive To Expect The Dominant Classes To Develop A Type Of Education That Would Enable Subordinate Classes To Perceive Social Injustices Critically.

No One Can Learn Tolerance In A Climate Of Irresponsibility, Which Does Not Produce Democracy. The Act Of Tolerating Requires A Climate In Which Limits May Be Established, In Which There Are Principles To Be Respected. That Is Why Tolerance Is Not Coexistence With The Intolerable. Under An Authoritarian Regime, In Which Authority Is Abused, Or A Permissive One, In Which Freedom Is Not Limited, One Can Hardly Learn Tolerance. Tolerance Requires Respect, Discipline, And Ethics.

I Have Never Said, As Is Sometimes Believed, Or Even Suggested That Lower-class Children Should Not Learn The So-called Educated Norm Of The Portuguese Language Of Brazil. What I Have Said Is That The Problems Of Language Always Involve Ideological Questions And, Along With Them, Questions Of Power.

The Road To Revolution Involves Openness To The People, Not Imperviousness To Them; It Involves Communion With The People, Not Mistrust.