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Riley's picture

in response to your thoughts:

I completely agree! Freire writes that "solidarity requires true communication, not just co-existence." If a humanist revolutionary educator is a true partner of her students, and if true consciousness is being able to understand one's relation with the world, not just in it, how can someone who thinks of charity as looking good or benefitting the self above all truly be doing "good work?" This person is just "'buying' peace for him/herself" (127).

I think what you are hinting at is that the intentionality of an action is what makes the act what it is. And taking action must always take into account dialogue. Self-involved reasons for taking up revolutionary causes is not true action because any attempt to mobilize change of any sort cannot be successful without a person understanding their place WITH the world (true solidarity), not just IN it (self-involved action). That applies to "activism" as well as teaching. Critical consciousness means intervening in the world to become a transformer of the world.

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