Efforts by a writing specialist at the University of Maine at Presque Isle to implement a learning center there were based on methodologies adapted from Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed." In keeping with Freire's call and decoding stages, the specialist began meeting with the necessary personnel to create guidelines and split the project into parts. The specialist found local people to be: (1) eager to welcome strangers; (2) hard-working and land-focused; (3) fundamentalist Christian; (4) somewhat racist toward Franco-Americans and American Indians; and (5) supportive of education as a means to a better life. Upon reflection, the writing specialist's teaching style was seen as authoritarian and an internal struggle for radical change began. Freshman in a composition class were found to be unaccustomed to dialogue. The class was transformed by being divided into small peer discussion groups which encouraged dialogue. A learning center with a staff of five was instituted at the university. Peer tutors were trained and a democratically-based methodology was established. More work needs to be done to determine contradictions between what is being done and what should be done. (SG)