Bell Hooks

American feminist, Gloria Jean Watkins was born September 25, 1952 her pen name was Bell Hooks under which she wrote a number of books about oppression and domination focusing on the relationship between race, class and gender. She claims that she can perpetuate systems of abuse. Bell Hooks has published thirty books, many scholarly articles, documentary films and various public lectures. Bell Hooks believes that by emulating oppression students can have an idea what it’s like to go through it and have more empathy for what goes on in the real world. She began teaching in 1976 as an English professor and senior lecturer in Ethnic Studies at the University of Southern California.

I really liked what Watkins has to say and I would like to apply her philosophy, someday in my own classroom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_hooks
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/hooks.htm

Don't laugh at me

Growing up in public school I have seen countless acts of bullying, I have even been a part of some of it firsthand. It often times doesn’t matter what the difference is, if someone is too ugly, too pretty, too fat or too thin they are immediately a target. School administration did not realize how damaging this could be to students until recently. There is a number of bullying related suicides that have plagued school districts which fueled the zero tolerance legislation. Bullying is legally a crime. Since this legislation has been enacted and this has been brought to the attention of teachers and administration there has been a decrease in suicides. It is of the utmost importance to have students learn in a comfortable environment and that healthy relationships are facilitated within the classroom. So it becomes the teacher’s responsibility to not only educate the students on the designated subjects, but on how to be a good person; how to have an upstanding character.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/TheLaw/reformed-bullies-tolerance-stop/story?id=11873884

Multiculture, Anti-Racism & Projustice

Throughout this entire course I have learned that the classroom must facilitate two types of learning: academic education and social education. It is just as important to produce well educated students as it is to produce well rounded students who have a good understanding of the world they live in. Being a teacher is about facilitating healthy relationships, and its important that as teachers we promote justice in the classroom. Not ignore our differences but celebrate them everyday or at least as often as possible. Having a multicultural classroom is a priveledge, it would give the class the opportunity to learn about other cultures first hand rather than learning about them out of a text book. Our future should be more united, not segregated.

Philosophy in the classroom

One of the philosphies that caught my eye was Humanism a system of thought placing importance to humans rather than divine or supernatural matters. I thought this philosophy belonged in the classroom! I was never a religious person growing up, I was raised in a strong atheist family and I appreciated a school that allowed me to feel that way and did not place religious imput in any of there lessons. As there is a respectable seperation between the schools and religion already in schools and Humanism continues to honor that. Another wonderful feature of Humanism is the reliance of one another. It teaches kindness and to be good to your common man. This is something that is extremely important for children to learn. And honestly it's something that a great deal of adults could still stand to learn from.