In 2008, Moje pondered responsive literacy teaching to what end, before arguing that disciplinary literacy should provide the answer in secondary school classrooms. Since then, research into literacy within school disciplines has foregrounded the reading, writing, and reasoning of experts within disciplines while backgrounding (or ignoring) worthy problems and student dignity. Using the case study of Neema, a 16-year-old Tanzanian student, the authors seek to humanize and pragmatize the answer to Moje's question, suggesting that disciplinary literacies and responsive pedagogy should be the means to a vital end: the elevated consciousness of students. Only when teaching supports how students develop greater consciousness of their presence in the world and of their inherent worth can teaching be considered responsive.