This is one of those books you have to masticate and digest rather than swallow without chewing. Freire makes a salad of education, dialogue, poverty, consciousness, and liberation. He shares how the powerful have historically dehumanized much of society through subtle yet oppressive means via the aforementioned themes. One of his most outstanding lines of reasoning derives from coming alongside of the poor as the starting point in authentic dialogue paving the way for true education and ultimately liberation of the oppressed.

There are many good thoughts throughout the book. In quoting some, I run the risk of minimizing the work. What the heck, I can't resist.

"A real humanist can be identified more by his trust in the people, which engages him in their struggle, than by a thousand actions in their favor without that trust." Ooaah.

"As beneficiaries of a situation of oprression, the oppressors cannot perceive that if having is a condition of being, it is a necessary condition for all men. That is why their generosity is false." Ouch!

"Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information." Santo!

"To alienate men from their own decision-making is to change them into objects." Yea Vavey.