ABSTRACT
Illiteracy is a handicap to the extent that in literate cultures it interdicts the illiterates by preventing them from completing the cycle in the relationship between language, thought, and reality and by closing the doors to writing, which represents an important and necessary means of understanding that relationship. The sad reality is that they oscillate between being paternalistically well-behaved nurturers under authoritarian administrations and rebellious teachers under democratic school administrations. When teachers become fearful, they begin to internalize the dominator's shadow and the authoritarian ideology of the administration. These teachers are no longer alone with their students because the force of the punitive and threatening dominant ideology comes between them. Treating schools as nonneutral spaces does not mean turning them into a political base for the party in power. However, it is impossible to deny that the political party running the government must have pedagogical position that is consistent with its political options, its ideological characteristics, and its governmental practices.
