To The Teacher That...

“When students are encouraged to trust in their capacity to learn they can meet difficult challenges with a spirit of resilience and competence...Teachers who extend the care and respect that is a component of love make it possible for students to address their fears openly and to receive affirmation and support.”

Being a college senior has turned out to be an extremely reflective time for me, which I must say, I did not expect when I started this collegiate education journey. As I begin to close this chapter in my life, at the extremely confusing age of 22, I can't help but look backwards at what, and who, has led me up to this very moment. It seems as if the days, and years, have flown by and it was just yesterday that I was attending my first day of college at FCC in my hometown of Fresno, California. How did I get here to Humboldt State? How did I get in this Environmental Studies Program? It would seem that this writing by Bell Hooks titled, Teaching Community - A Pedagogy Of Hope, has come at just the right time to help me dive deeper into these questions.  

If it had not been for some very influential and, in retrospect, loving teachers than I cannot say for sure at all if I would be graduating this spring with my degree in Environmental Studies...I cannot say for sure at all where I would even be in this world. What I like about the piece by Bell Hooks, is that she articulates an experience that I myself have undergone as an undergrad as I have been working,  and searching my way through the thick jungle canopy that is the college schooling system. Looking back to who I was at the beginning of my college career I can now acknowledge this: I was extremely insecure (and clueless) about my abilities, my strengths, and my weaknesses.Now I feel so much more confident in the few years I have dedicated myself to becoming a more well rounded and critical thinker. I can proudly declare what I know I am good at and what I know I struggle in without any feeling of shame or anxiety.

How do we put a price on that? What school standard did a teacher use to give me this gift of confidence? Is it the textbooks and tests that I have to thank for this? The answer is a loud and assertive HELL NO.

What has been the most formative and influential for me throughout my college experience has been my professors. And this one thing, my professors, is what  I have come to realize is my definition of a pedagogy of hope as it most makes sense to me in my life. I can think of certain teachers specifically who really changed my course and steered me closer to my most current being and for that I will be forever grateful.

Without these teachers extending their care, respect, and love to me I would have never done so many things that I currently treasure so dearly. This affirmation and support that I received from my teachers has meant everything to me and I want to take this particular moment in space and time to consciously honor them. I want to do this because although these people have meant so much to me in my life..most of them I have no idea how to contact and they would never guess they made such a big impact on me. In fact I can't even remember some of their names. It is funny how the mind works...So at least, at the very least, this is a place to start to honor these teachers and all of the love, and hope they have instilled in me.

• Thank you to that weird philosophy teacher I had in Jr. college for philosophy of religion that always wore bicycle shorts and cleared his throat every two minutes. You drove me insane most of the time but underneath your..quirkiness..you were a brilliant man. Thank you for introducing me to the world of ancient philosophers and for the wisdom that they have continued to bring me in my life. Thank you for teaching me that it is not what is on the outside, it is what people have on the inside that matters. Thank you for teaching me patience. Thank you for teaching me how to deconstruct philosophical views and opinions. Thank you for the God and the stone question. That has always stuck with me!

• Thank you to my JR. College biology 103 teacher who taught me that women can study and work within the world of science. Thank you for giving me enough to confidence to realize that I AM smart enough to study and work in science too. Thank you for inspiring me to have role models again. Thank you for being someone I wanted to impress and for unintentionally encouraging me to get a high A in your class. Thank you for being the first proud and well educated vegetarian that I had the pleasure of discussing animals with that showed me other people think critically about animals as well. Thank you for inspiring me to find a science program that fit my interests!

• Thank you to Mr. Tannen for seeing talent and worth in my writing in Jr. College. Thank you for caring about me, engaging with me, and respecting me enough to reach out and tell me to that I would be a good english tutor. I would have NEVER done something like that otherwise. Thank you for having fun, themed, classes for English 1A and 3 that have forever changed my interpretation of superheroes and my future immensely. Thank you for making me a better writer and for helping me become more confident and secure in my abilities.

• Thank you to Professor Sarah Ray for your passion for critical thinking that you bring to class with you every single day. Thank you for somehow getting to know me, my passions and my life despite having countless other students in your life. Thank you for making me feel like I have important and valid things to say. Thank you for introducing me to so many amazing authors that I will literally spend years reading. Thank you for always being your authentic and honest self. Thank you for being the mentor I needed and wanted from my time at Humboldt State.   

So who the hell am I this may when I graduate from college and am officially in every way an “adult”? I have no clue. But what I do know is that without these people, these teachers that each gave me something unique: that inspired me, educated me, gave me hope, and molded me into the articulated and confident person I am today, have made all the difference. They have all individually helped me figure out who I am...and you know what? I think I am pretty damn cool.

Education Creating Hope: A Story of Two Sisters

This weeks readings were centered on education, our first reading by Jeff Duncan-Andrade, “Note to Educators: Hope Required When Growing Roses in Concrete,” and excerpts from “Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope” by bell hooks. 

Though I have never considered myself an educator, these readings have really opened my eyes to what being an “educator” means and the power that one holds in this form. I have come to discover that we are all educators in some way or another, whether it be to a sibling or a cousin to a coworker, there are many opportunities for “education.” 

I have only one sibling, a younger sister, who I am very close with. We have been close all of our lives, mostly because of our parents divorce during our youth. We knew that one another were going to be the only ones who truly understood what the other was going though. Such as how life was at moms house, to life at dads house, to life at our grandparents house. We knew that the only way to maintain hope about getting through our parents divorce was to stick together. 

The lesson of sticking together to maintain hope is one that Duncan-Andrade and bell hooks have reaffirmed for me, but on a much broader scale. When Duncan-Andrade stated, “… audacious hope demands that we reconnect to the collective by struggling alongside one another, sharing in the victories and the pain” this really resonated with me but I was not sure why. Through reflection and discussion with my sister over spring break I have come to understand that we maintained our friendship and sisterhood to maintain hope. By applying a broader definition of educator, where it is not a simple top down relationship, but a cycle, I came to understand that my sister and I were educators for each other. She would teach me how to not stress about moving back and forth from home to home and I taught her how to divide fractions. We were able to balance one another and form a relationship that both of us cherish everyday. Perhaps we would have fought and not become as close if it weren't for our parents divorce. 

Trying times open up opportunities for connection and community that can give personal and societal hope about dismal situations. Education is a powerful form to create this bonds, and by brooding the definition of an “educator” there is more opportunity for these bonds, and thus hope, to be formed. When applying this lesson to climate change as a “trying time” the possibilities are endless. 

Change the Story

                How can we as individuals challenge the societal norms we have become accustomed to everyday? As an elementary school student I was conditioned to fit into a system which is obviously outdated and was detrimental to my own way of learning. When I read the Bell Hooks piece, Teaching to Transgress I came to realization that I was not the only student who has had a negative experience in the education system. I understand that the bulk of the reading our class did was surrounded around college classrooms but I believe that this can also be applied to the elementary school level. Each student is an individual. We all learn differently. Some students fit into the already existing, outdated Prussian industrial model, however most do not. I was one of those students who became conditioned to fit into a way of learning that I was not comfortable with. I was a very high-energy boy and a visual learner. I learn best by being immersed in a subject. I need to see how the subject in question works in the real world.  In college certain classes I took fit my style of learning much more than I was previously accustomed to. I began to encounter professors that cared about the content of their class engaged me as an individual student. Writer Kelly J. Baker sums up my point perfectly in her review of Teaching to Transgress called Teaching as Liberation. She writes, “We must do better. Students need knowledge, but it has to be more than bits of information they are forced to remember. It should be relevant to their lives. Teachers should care not only about the mastery of the subject, but how the content engages a life.” If we change the overall story of how a classroom ‘should be’ then we can engage more students and inspire more learning in all levels of education.  

The Classroom: An Invisible Line Meant to Be Crossed

This week’s readings hit me the way rain hits the north coast’s concrete floors. It’s starts subtly, quickly picks up, then slows to a drizzle - only to bring more rain. My eyes literally watered up during what author bell hooks described as the conflux of educators and students during difficult, err - defining-moments of life in and out of the “traditional” classroom setting. The class discussion that followed our readings only reinforced what I felt. Classmates talked about positive past experiences and how teachers helped foster passions in what they do now; and why they continue to do it today. 

The central theme in our dialogue oscillated from one side of the room to the other with encouraging stories of “creating awareness,” “changing the story,” and “higher education.”

A Pedagogy of Hope recalled me of working with incarcerated youth during my service as an English tutor with the AmeriCorps National Service Program. I walked into that time of my life unaware of how to work with “at-risk” youth - let alone know to change how I approached the situation. But somehow it worked. I was “myself,” I listened, and I was what someone might call “nice.” And the tough young adults I worked with somehow connected with that. Were they expecting every adult to enter their life with attitude and judgment? Maybe. In fact, I’m almost sure they did, but I didn’t want to be another authority figure in their life. It didn’t happen over night (trust me, it took months) but somehow, something between us clicked. I have literally taken that experience and apply it to almost every aspect of my life. Be yourself, listen sincerely to what other people have to say, and be nice. To me, hooks described that when she wrote of “…becoming more emotionally aware of psychological conflicts within a student blocking the student’s capacity to learn.” Checking-in with someone before you start working with them can make a huge difference. It can help both people get through tasks while both being mentally there to tackle the problems. I would often ask how my former students were doing before trying to jump into writing exercises with them. I often found that those were the moments when they actually wanted to work. Slowing down and being considerate goes a long way when working with youth and hooks describes that as “conscious teaching.” 

To this day, I couldn’t imagine not considering my students or classmates lives outside of the “classroom” before working on what goes on inside of it. The classroom is all around us - on campus, at home, on the streets, and anywhere else we interact with one another. hooks helps interrupt that invisible line that is all too often drawn between the classroom and the world outside. My pedagogy of hope will continue to envelop the two before being sent out to the people I get to work with. 

Consider that concept of a ”classroom” when you enter your next class. Does it end when you step outside of the room's four wall? Is it all around you? 

Message received? Loud and clear. 

Teaching to Save the World

Coming of age in a society like the one in which we currently live can be dejectedly traumatic and disempowering; especially once one arrives at the nitty gritty of what capitalism really entails, or when it dawns on one the stipulations behind climate change and how humans may have been able to prevent it had they been slightly less careless. 

Today, young people grow in a world wherein it's almost faddish to be a cynic, wherein mockery involving the unlikelihood of one's success compared to another's unlikelihood of success is considered humorous, wherein hopelessness is nearly the only option. 

We place insurmountable standards of success on our kids and when they don't rise to the occasion, we chastise them and assume "kids these days" don't care. With those sorts of assumptions, it's no wonder young people have become complacent with cynicism, with self-deprecation, with hopelessness.

To save the world, we must break out of this cycle and begin to empower young people by standing in solidarity with their ideas. We must create environments in which kids are encouraged to prosper and think "outside of the box." We must celebrate every small victory as if it's the last. 

Future educators can help to ease the load of this process. Educators must deliberately nurture students, colleagues, and themselves through adversity in the form of cracks, knowing they must sustain the trauma of damaged petals along the way. Anger, stubbornness, or recklessness due to outside influences are merely reactions to adversity and must not condemn educators themselves hopeless in the pursuit of saving the world because hope in our kids and ourselves is required when growing roses in concrete. 

If we lose hope in ourselves, how on earth are kids going to muster empowerment and hope within themselves when the very people who are meant to teach them are only capable of teaching hopelessness in the first place?

The Essence of Love in Teaching

As we go about our lives, the one thing that makes us feel whole, makes us feel as if we have a purpose in life is love. It gives us the strength and motivation to finish what we started and continue fighting whatever may stand in our way. Love, being an intense feeling of deep affection can take our minds and souls and open them up to changes we would have never imagined.

When we say, “love is in the air,” there is a connection that is established between individuals and this sense of community begins to develop. Rather than creating conflict, we start to feel more comfortable around one another, which lead to more open-minded and passionate interactions and communication.  

           

In Bell Hooks, “A Pedagogy of Hope,” she quotes Parker Palmer as saying, “The origin of knowledge is love…the goal of a knowledge arising from life is the reunification and reconstruction of broken selves and worlds.” This pertains particularly in the classroom when it comes to learning and understanding new or different concepts. She further states that, “the act of knowing is an act of love, the act of entering and embracing the reality of the other, of allowing the other to enter and embrace our own. In such knowing we know and are known as members of one community.” When love is involved with teaching it makes teachers less objective and gets rid of this “dominator culture” that is promoting dehumanization and forms a connection between teacher and student.  

Essentially, love is the binding agent that keeps communities together where open minds and hearts are welcomed. It causes us to be challenged, to rethink the status quo and can even change us as individuals for the better. Love is a combination of care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect, and trust that work interdependently of each other. By including love, we are able to have a deeper more meaningful understanding of various concepts while allowing us to get to the heart of the matter constructively leading to a more hopeful future.   

The Power of Hope

Hope is the essence of believing things will get better. This idea that no matter what the odds, there is still something worth fighting for. Even through the most despairing of situations, hope can be your guide. Like the north star is to someone lost at sea. It's when you discover hope, your real journey begins.

Hope is one of the underlining factors that produces social change. The ability to look at a specific situation and tell yourself “I'm not going to give up”. Granted, this is something that is not easy. It takes real strength to stare a horrible, gigantic problem straight in the eyes and say, “I'm going to defeat you, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday because of people like me  your existence will end”. This is the sort of thinking that separates the forlorn from the sanguine.

Heroic figures of social change like Gandhi, Cesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King all had something in common and that was their hope. They had hope in people, hope in their movements, and most importantly hope in themselves. These legends used their ambitions to transform unjust systems and will forever be remembered for it. Hope isn't only a characteristic but also a tool. Those who use hope, use it to defy the odds.  

Without hope there would never be progression. People would conform to whatever depressing norm suppresses them and never break free. Having hope is the first step to standing against everything that is wrong and taking a step towards what is right. My bottom line is to be hopeful. I implore you try it, use it , and see the sort of changes you make in your own life. Like Aristotle once said, "Hope is a waking dream".