Based on studies and investigations that have been developed since the mid 1990s, this text seeks to retrieve the categories of Freire, to highlight the distinction acquired by Popular Education, reflecting on them, based on Freire’s work, in the light of the socalled epistemological and political instabilities of our time. For this, we propose to start with a basic principle: Freire emphasizes good concepts, good categories for dialogue on Popular Education and for thinking about the reality experience by the subjects of this education. Based on this premise, the task is to select references to construct a dialogue with Freire. The main source for this work is the bibliography of Freire. Also, the challenges faced by education today act as beacons to guide the selection of categories and reflect on them in the light of what is considered a limit-situation in schools. The different approaches selected here led to some findings. Freire was an education scholar who believed deeply in the human being. Men and women, though incomplete, can become subjects in history. To account for such a task, Freire is a thinker whose life was committed to political coherence in favor of the oppressed. This coherence is rooted in the capacity to dream and have hope; a fact can be seen in the great examples of resistance which he helped to build in Brazil and abroad. Freire had a deep belief – neither exclusive nor messianic – in the people’s capacity to educate itself and change the reality. Using his knowledge, he taught people how to read and write, in particular, helped them in the difficult task of reading and writing the world. The question remains: why use Freire to think about Popular Education or to reflect upon educational tasks in different spaces, including the school?