The director, permanent teaching staff and the teachers who studied there all participated equally in the schools governance. Freire believed that this center had the potential to become the first new university. Both understood literacy education as a political act and therefore promoted a critical approach to reading and writing. The FARP project was divided up into 3 phases. At the time Freire wrote this book, the first two phases were well under way and the third was getting started.
Militants equate literacy with national reconstruction.
Because they fought for independence, they have a clear understanding of what is meant by reconstruction. Civilians, on the other hand, do not have a clear understanding of what is meant by reconstruction and therefore see literacy as a solution to their individual problems. For Freire, these differences should be taken into account when working with civilians. Freire and his team visited some of the culture circles in action. He concluded that there was some genuine learning taking place, and that the main problem seemed to be the impatience of some of the teacher in letting the students come up with their own words.