I wasn’t sure what to title this post, mainly because I am
still working through the contents of Chapter 13. There were many components that
didn’t sit well with me, such as hooks’ discussion of her “erotic” attraction
to a male student and the quasi-romantic letters her students would write at
the end of a course. Reading those sections angered me: even though she pushes
for a view of passion that goes beyond eroticism, it still includes eroticism,
and that is something I will never get behind.
I agree that education should encourage students to make
change in their everyday life, and in order to do so, we need to view the classroom
as it is: a non-neutral space. Naturally, when we read students’ writing, we
are entering a vulnerable space. Students enter the classroom and write with
their own experiences, values, bias, and privileges, something that hooks explains
in her chapter on class. If we want students to apply what they learned in the classroom to their everyday life, we have to address these topics, all which center
around race, class, gender, (dis)ability, sexuality, etc. in some way.
These are topics that will ignite passion, whether it be
confusion, anger, guilt, depression, or determination (or something else). This
passion I fully support, and I agree that the classroom needs to 1) welcome
these moments passion, 2) encourage acts of disruption and interruption, and 3)
value students’ efforts to push back against the oppressive system of education.
This type of passion extends beyond the classroom and creates a bridge for
students between the “academy” and what they experience every day. The two are
not separate, but, as hooks explains, students are forced to choose between
adopting the white, middle-class values that dominant the academy or defending their
own. Students should not have to choose, and valuing a passionate disruption of
this oppressive system is one step forward.
I am all for this; however, we can do this without opening
passion up to erotic feelings. Just like we can’t pretend that everyone is
equal in the classroom, we cannot pretend that power structures between
students and instructors do not exist. I am all for subverting power structures,
and I am keeping in mind that hooks is a woman of color in a position that is
dominated by white people. But at the end of the day, the instructor is still
in a position of power, and when that power is abused, intentionally or not,
education comes to a halt.
I pose the following questions: How did you navigate hooks' discussion of passion? What role should passion play in the classroom?
Margaret,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your take here. hook's chapter reminded me of the touch and passion chapter from Out in the Center that some of read this summer. With that chapter, the author was advocating for personal touch and things in the writing center in order to make writing more passionate and would compare the writing process to sex. I bring this up to say that I also wonder what role passion should/can play in all forms of writing instruction, including writing centers?
Margaret,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statements above. This chapter was difficult to read because bell hooks made many good points about passion in the classroom. Obviously, we want our students to be passionate about their work and hopefully get something out of our class that can be used outside of the classroom. We also want to be passionate about our work in our classroom and share in this experience with our students. These things are normal and do warrant a discussion. Unfortunately, bell hooks' views on passion in the classroom were easy to overlook because of the points about inappropriate professor-student relationships that she made. I think if hooks would have just done a chapter about bringing passion back into teaching, it would have been insightful. However, she tried to couple two topics that did not fit together.
Natalie,
DeleteI totally agree with you here. As I sent the class, hooks' blog post about student-professor relationships seem deeply inappropriate and problematic to me. hooks' discussion erotic teaching and passion combined with the student describing the relationship as "terrifying" complicates the idea that passion/erotic teaching is the way to go. The chapter cherry picked the "good" moments, but the blog illuminates how this can turn deeply wrong and troublesome.
I'm not exactly sure why she even included this chapter in the first place. Is it an admission? Did she think, "Oh, I'll send this out to the world and me sleeping with my students will some how be ok." Nah, girl. Slow your role. The chapter, for me, didn't add anything to the book overall. In fact, I think she has a lot to offer as an educator and her views of the classroom are definitely an inspiration; minus having sex with students.
ReplyDeleteIt was an uncomfortable chapter for me overall. As a white, cisgender male, I didn't feel like I had any right to discuss that chapter. For me, I recognize automatically what I bring into the classroom via my body and the power that comes with my role as an instructor. I'm very careful about how I use that power because, let's face it, we have to sometimes, but imagine if some white dude had written this chapter. He'd have been cancelled and his credibility would be worth nothing. Though hooks is a woman of color, she doesn't get a pass from me.
I'll leave with this, and it's nothing new or controversial: if you hold a position of power over someone else, abusing that power is unethical and you're a piece of shit for it. Period. hooks abused her power and then bragged about it for pages and pages. That's gross and I can never get behind that. I worry greatly about my own children and the power dynamics they'll have to navigate in life. I shouldn't have to worry about professors taking advantage of them.