We Make the Road by Walking

"We Make the Road by Walking is a book of compelling passion, politics, and hope. The dialogue between Horton and Freire opens up new insights into the meaning of pedagogy, social criticism, and collective struggle. This book offers hope by demonstrating in the voices and practices of two of the great educator-activists of the twentieth century the reason for making pedagogy practical and theoretical in the service of social justice."-Professor Henry A. Giroux, Director, Center for Education and Cultural Studies, Miami University "This book is an inspiration.... People interested in learning and social change will find in these pages hope, humor, passion, guidance, and humility. This final conversation between two educator from different continents reveals their common dream of human liberation, their common commitment to love and justice."-Professor Ira Shor, College of Staten Island, CUNY "The Myles Horton-Paulo Freire talks represent one of the most important educational conversations of the twentieth century.... This is the first book since Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed that I have said must be read." -Budd L. Hall, Secretary-General, International Council for Adult Education

• Preface Acknowledgments Editors' Introduction 1. Introduction "We make the road by walking" 2. Formative Years "I was always getting in trouble for reading in school" "Reading has to be a loving event" "I couldn't use all this book learning" "I always am in the beginning, as you" "Pockets of hope": Literacy and citizenship 3. Ideas "Without practice there's no knowledge" "Is it possible just to teach biology?" "I've always been ambivalent about charismatic leaders" "The difference between education and organizing" "My expertise is in knowing not to be an expert" "My respect for the soul of the culture" "I learned a lot from being a father" 4. Educational Practice "The more the people become themselves, the better the democracy" "Highlander is a weaving of many colors" "Conflicts are the midwife of consciousness" 5. Education and Social Change "You have to bootleg education" "The people begin to get their history into their hands, and then the role of education changes" 6. Reflections "Peaks and valleys and hills and hollers" "It's necessary to laugh with the people" Epilogue Index