Teaching to Transgress

We started reading Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks this week.  The author really wants us to consider teaching to be much more exciting, especially if we can take it beyond its limiting boundaries. Obviously, many people do consider teaching to be boring. My partner is an educator also but would prefer to write instead. Alas, teaching is what will bring in money until she publishes a best seller!

However, I intend to be an educator. My own belief is that not only education is important, but how we apply it is also. Do we really question as much that goes on in the world? How much do we really analyze and later return to?

This is what hooks write about with regards to engaged pedagogy. Do we simply memorize facts and figures, or do we weave knowledge into our lives? Do we enable our students to use the information to see fewer limitations in their lives? These are some things that hooks wants teachers to be able to do.

What I found invaluable is the insight given with regards to attending public schools before and after desegregation. When she was in a segregated school, African American teachers taught her differently than the white teacher in the desegregated schools. She was expected to submit to authority while simultaneously was devalued in her abilities by white instructors. This experience really shaped how she perceived the purpose of schools and how they could and should be for all students.

I really enjoyed much of what she had to say to include this: "I learned that far from being self-actualized, the university was seen more as a haven for those who are smart in book knowledge but who might be otherwise unfit for social interaction"(16.). She goes on to say that there is a sharp differentiation in the lives of educators, that they are solely to be unbiased disseminators of information in the classroom and not speak of their lives outside it.

To me, this seems quite typical, as no instructor wants to be labeled biased. However, I do not know of any instructors who I did not find a bias. Whether they choose to let me know where they stand on something, I listen for cues in their reactions and the words that they use. Some instructors have surprised me because they can and do grade students on their politics and background more than they would like to admit. It seems a lot like journalists, who claim to be unbiased but we all know that they are.

Further, we do see teachers outside of the classroom. They do exist in the real world, which does surprise students. I have had some college instructors warn us ahead of time that yes, we may run into them around town to include the natural food co-ops. I think instructors should be a bit social, though none absolutely have to be extroverts - though this helps.

"Certainly it was naive for me to imagine during high school that I would find spiritual and intellectual guidance in university settings from writers, thinkers, scholars... More than anything they seemed enthralled by the exercise of power and authority within their mini-kingdom, the classroom"(17.). As she says, there certainly is a lot of power a teacher has over the classroom setting. However, students should be able to find the space to sort out what questions they have about what they are learning and how to apply it to their lives. I did say this above, but I believe this is also what she is saying here. Educators can't be guidance counselors or social workers, but they can do more with what they are teaching and how than what is currently done widely.