The above question is challenging because when you look at the education system in America, it doesn't take long to see that the standardization of public school curricula, instruction, and assessment is pervasive in our society. Critical theorists may be right to assume that public education has indeed succumbed to Freire's warning about authoritarianism. However, just as Freire championed the need for hope in his writings, so we must look to the qualities he espoused in the role of teachers, in teaching literacy, and in building democratic classrooms and continue to hope that change is possible. Giroux echoed Freire's ideas “I cannot believe in a democracy that has no hope,” he said in an interview published on Penn State's website (Brown, 2000). Education tends to always be at the forefront of political discussion in America because it affects every citizen in some shape or form, regardless of whether they have children in school. In discussing the role of education, one must ask what the purpose of schooling is – why citizens of countries around the world engage in it. be part of a literate society? Reading the Bible was the initial reason for teaching students to read in the colonial days of America. Since that time, the mission has emphasized education that goes beyond reading and writing to develop citizenship. Over the years, from about a quarter of the world's nations in 1973 to over two-thirds in the early 1990s (Leftwich , 1996), the maintenance and maintenance of democracies has become a focal point of the educational process. Butts stated that “the goal of education is to enable all the population to exercise their rights and to cope with the… middle of the paper… or dare to teach. Boulder, CO: West View Press. Giroux, H. (1998, October). Which schools: Embedded Education? Educational Leadership, 56 (2), 12-17.Giroux, H., & McLaren, P. (1986). Teacher training and engagement policies: The case of democratic schools. Harvard Education Review, 56 (3), 213-238.Harvey, S. & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies that work: Teaching understanding for understanding and engagement (2nd ed.). Portalnd, MA: Stenhouse Publishers.Leftwich, A. (ed.). (1996) Democracy and development. Cambridge: Polity Press.National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of State School Leaders. (2010). Common Core State Standards Language Arts. Washington DCShor, I. (1986, November). Equality is excellence: Transforming teacher education and the learning process. Harvard Education Review, 56(4), 406-426.