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Eric Culpepper
Lindsay Drumm
English 111
11 June 2014
Final
Revolutionary Thinking
Why do teachers/instructors try to get their students to not only pay attention but to get
involved with the lesson? I will be analyzing Engaged Pedagogy by bell hooks (a teacher,
writer, and scholar) to better understand what it means to be an engaged educator. I want to first
explore the idea of being an active participant in the classroom. Next, I want to take a closer
look at what hooks says about the mind, body, and spirit in relation to pedagogy the art,
science, or profession of teaching. hooks also talks about empowering students to make their
own choices, which is an important aspect of her teaching style. This article is worth reading,
especially for those who plan to teach others, as hooks brings up several good points about being
an active participant in a classroom setting.
What does it mean to be an active participant? Most people already have an idea, but how
does hooks relate it to her topic? hooks is actually using this when talking about what she learned
from Paulo Freire. I like this part of hookss article because it is easy to relate to as she is writing
about a time when she was a student. My favorite line in the beginning section of the article, is
when hooks says, the banking system of education, that approach to learning that is rooted in
the notion that all students need to do is consume information fed to them by a professor and be
able to memorize and store it (254). hooks is using this as a negative, and I agree that it should
be. I remember when my older sister started college and told me that all I have to do is remember
everything until after the midterm or exam and then just forget it all so I would have room to
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store more information for the next test. Silly, but thats what works. hooks is telling the reader
that, in order to learn better, the student must participate in the classroom. Not only does this
benefit the students that participate, but every student and the instructor.
It is fantastic how hooks relates to the mind, body, and spirit in her article. Although
hooks does not say much on the topic, she has a good theory here. Thich Nhat Hanh, a
Vietnamese Buddhist monk whom hooks uses as a reference, says this: the practice of a healer,
therapist, teacher or any helping professional should be directed toward his or herself first,
because if the helper is unhappy, he or she cannot help many people (255). This quote is used to
show the reader where hooks begins to change her view on teaching, while she was still a
student. hooks goes on to say, Most of my professors were not the slightest bit interested in
enlightenment (255-256). Too often, educators want to throw the information at students and
leave them responsible for truly learning and understanding it. I, myself, have felt this way on
many occasions, even though times have definitely changed from when hooks wrote this article.
hooks appears to have had only two instructors through all of her schooling who actually cared
more about the mind, body, and spirit of their students. Personally, I recommend going to a
community college over a university because, more often than not, the educators will take the
time to help students understand when they may be confused or when they may need help on a
more personal level.
One of the examples that hooks uses is a student of hers and his decision to join a
fraternity. This student starts by talking about all the good that the fraternity has done, but, in the
end, he decides not to join because it was not constructive (257). With this example, hooks is
showing her engaged pedagogy and influencing her students to make good decisions for
themselves outside of the classroom. She writes, This is one of the joys of education as the
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practice of freedom, for it allows students to assume responsibility for their choices (257). I like
this section of hookss article because it shows the other side of her that she has been talking
about. This tells the reader that not only does she enjoy educating others, but she strives to
develop the minds of those she teaches.
I really enjoyed hookss article Engaged Pedagogy, as it helps the reader to understand
what it means to be an educator and some of the things that educators experience. What I believe
most people would see as helpful, much like I did, is how hooks moves through her article from
talking about a time where she herself was a student to a time where she is a teacher and is
empowering her students to assume responsibility for their own choices and to remain open-
minded. Although this article was long and drawn out, it does have a lot of good information. For
anyone who is planning to become an educator, I would recommend reading it.


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Works Cited
hooks, bell. Engaged Pedagogy. Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning in the
21
st
Century. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2013. 253-259. Print