Engage This

As it is summer, and classes are not in session, I have been reading for pleasure. Rather than being the first to “expose” myself to “internet judgment,” (as Lady Audley so optimistically put it) I will share an excerpt from a recent read. Teaching to Transgress, by bell hooks:

“Teaching is a performative act. And it is that aspect of our work that offers the space for change, invention, spontaneous shifts, that can serve as a catalyst drawing out the unique elements in each classroom. To embrace the performative aspect of teaching we are compelled to engage “audiences,” to consider issues of reciprocity. Teachers are not performers in the traditional sense of the word in that our work is not meant to be a spectacle. Yet it is meant to serve as a catalyst that calls everyone to become more and more engaged, to become active participants in learning.”

“The engaged voice must never be fixed and absolute but always changing, always evolving in dialog with a world beyond itself” (11).

That's all I've got at present. Ciao.