Reviews
The concepts are enlightened but the middle third got a bit too…academic.
today i finished teaching to transgress by bell hooks. this is one of the best, most meaningful books i’ve read in my life, simply because it spoke (sung, danced) to my soul and my utmost center. i read All About Love last year, and though i didn’t agree with some points in the book, reading this affirmed that bell hooks is one the most rooted, connected, and embodied authors of all time.
here, she intricately talks about differences in location, and how empowering it is to find a point of contact, to become a location of possibility. the most radical location of possibility, she believes, resides in the classroom. as an educator, i believe this wholeheartedly. i’m moved by this work because she talks about transgressing boundaries, about negating the mind/body split, about passion, eros, excitement, ecstasy – all of the feelings not actively sought in the traditional classroom. she enriches my love for education by talking about how we, as teachers, must bring our bodies into the classroom. not the immobile bodies but the one that moves, feels, navigates through life with emotions. there is room for emotions in the classroom. what we learn and talk about in these four walls must transgress, must become habits of being.
she teaches me about the gift of voice, of recognizing one another, of mutual responsibility in creating a learning community. she urges me to explore the shifts needed in the overall educational system of my locality, yes, but also in the way i think, speak, write as a means of pursuing engaged pedagogy.
the mind/body split must be transformed, just as theory and practice must be conjoined.
how our personal narratives and experiences enhance our capacity to know, to learn. to interrogate our experiences, biases, and allow ourselves too, to be interrogated.
to find our own voice, but also to receive the voice of others.
how the professor is someone i become, not just a fixed idea.
my passion is all the more rekindled. i feel ecstatic to enter this career. love you, bell hooks.
*this entry doesn’t include all that i feel about her moving pieces on feminism, race, class (and the interplay with education, paradigms of domination, etc.) – all of which spoke to my heart & soul too.
Still reading but it is almost like why bother It is such an infuriating piece of upper middle class NPR gobbledygook. Let me just get this off my chest. I have spent the last few hours reading Bell Hooks Teaching to Transgress. That book says absolutely nothing. It doesn't even make logical sense much of the time. She can just say what ever she want because what? She is famous, she know rich people, she went to Yale. Look i went to a school with out grade just like she said and this has nothing to do with that. This is one of the most narcissistic things i have ever read. How the hell she reaches her back to pat it i will never know. She even name drops student to add to her rosy glow. You can tell why rich white women would just love this. The can use its techniques to bloviate all over everything so people get so confused and worried about what they are doing and saying one has to submit. This is a narrative of fascism with a friendly face. This is the kind of person who will immediately assume whatever control she can because it is there. Somehow everything must be evaluated using whatever strike ones fancy at the time. It is describing a room of people judging everyone else and never doing anything for themselves. It is a culture built on authority and tenure. Remember all the real liberal teachers were removed after the sixties. What is left is a fascist sytem of ego inflation. These people wouldn't wonder why we are here or ponder over some beautiful passage in some book. This is the kind of person who uses the fact that they can use big words to dominate other people watthour them knowing. She isn't trying to teach she is trying to indoctrinated.
I find bell hooks’ books always bring me new insight, and in the spirit of her pedagogics, they stir something in me and leave me reflecting and questioning my practices. I wholeheartedly recommend this or any other of her works. One comes wise on the other end.
