We have observed ... that at the intellectual level the teachers in a training seminar may accept totally our analysis of the literacy education of adults as a creative act .... In actual practice, however, many of these teachers are conditioned by their class position and by the myths of their superiority in relation to the peasants and workers. They assimilate these myths during their own class education and reduce the learners to mere depositories for their knowledge.... Their methodological errors have ideological roots. To correct them requires more than insistence on the methods themselves. It requires a permanent revision of the ideological class conditioning of teachers.36

Wagner describes the beginning of such a process as it occurred in the Crossroads project in Montreal:

... it was necessary that right at the start the "teachers" were willing to re-examine themselves and their "professional" perceptions and solutions for the situation. We suddenly discovered that if the adults with whom we were working were illiterates, in that they could not read and write, we ourselves were illiterates socially, economically and politically.37

To become literate in the latter sense implies that one becomes aware of the dynamics of class exploitation. However, mere knowledge is not sufficient; Freire points out the necessity of taking a political stand both for and with the dominated class with whom one works. 38

For example, the Freiran-inspired "Themes for Learning and Teaching", the alternative curriculum for English class for immigrants produced by the ESL Core Group in Toronto, expresses a critical political viewpoint with which the teacher should generally agree if the materials are to be put to effective use. According to the Introduction:

Conscientization and consciousness-raising imply conviction of values which we are suggesting the teachers should be aware of at every level of teaching.39

The "conscientization objectives" of the guide include statements like: "The distribution of finances for education favors middle and higher income groups; working people pay disproportionately for an educational system from which they derive least benefit." "Immigration laws and regulations change. They serve the needs of certain economic interests." "Emphasis on cultural differences serves as a means of preventing people from perceiving the commonalities (social and economic) among working people." 40