1.6.3 C. Worker as liberator

Young people are born good, powerful and with great flexible intelligence but through even the most well-meaning family upbringing, through their school experience and life in the community, they pick up hurts which close down their intelligence and separate them from that awareness. It's the adults’ job to help them reclaim that awareness, to hang in there with them even when their hurt makes them behave badly, give them information and support and, when appropriate, help them learn from experience and encourage their good thinking and their attempts to take charge of their lives. Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator, suggests that ‘To be a good liberating educator, you need above all to have faith in human beings, you need to love’(Freire, 1971, p. 62).