Hooks shares her experiences with us and justifies them for us as well. Feeling out of place outside of your class is the normative; at least in certain institutions that value class distinctions. At the end Hooks spoke about her schooling experience and made a comment that made me very much think about the Anyon article we read. She says:
"My way out of being a maid, of doing the dirty work of
cleaning someone else's house, was to become a schoolteacher. The
thought terrified me. From grade school on I feared and hated the
classroom. In my imagination it was still the ultimate place of inclusion and exclusion, discipline and punishment-worse than the fascist family because there was no connection of blood to keep in check impulses to search and destroy. "
Anyon would argue that Ms. Hooks was clearly educated in a working class classroom. This conclusion would have been obvious to us even without her documentation of the fact because of her feelings towards the classroom. Anyon talked about how crucial relationships were to children across different classes and those relationships were the basis of the rest of their lives. The fact that Hooks went very far in the education system proves that she was an exception to this line of observation, or was she? One could argue that the experiences she had as a child in the working class classroom forever made her feel as though she did not belong. Her feelings and doubts about her own worth were proven and challenged by those of higher class who believed themselves to be inclusive of some superior race. I bet they went to one of the professional schools mentioned by Anyon; encouraged to think for themselves, solve problems by themselves, and believe in themselves, something working class children never have the luxury of doing. Hook's teacher in grade school must have had an all powerful relationship with her during her years of schooling. Hook's was probably given what we have entitled as busy work, meaningless information that requires no complex thought, and whose concerns were probably continuously ignored.
(I still have to say it makes me mad that the teacher we read about in the Anyon article did not care about the child's broken pencil)
Hooks also mentions jobs:
Anyon would argue that Ms. Hooks was clearly educated in a working class classroom. This conclusion would have been obvious to us even without her documentation of the fact because of her feelings towards the classroom. Anyon talked about how crucial relationships were to children across different classes and those relationships were the basis of the rest of their lives. The fact that Hooks went very far in the education system proves that she was an exception to this line of observation, or was she? One could argue that the experiences she had as a child in the working class classroom forever made her feel as though she did not belong. Her feelings and doubts about her own worth were proven and challenged by those of higher class who believed themselves to be inclusive of some superior race. I bet they went to one of the professional schools mentioned by Anyon; encouraged to think for themselves, solve problems by themselves, and believe in themselves, something working class children never have the luxury of doing. Hook's teacher in grade school must have had an all powerful relationship with her during her years of schooling. Hook's was probably given what we have entitled as busy work, meaningless information that requires no complex thought, and whose concerns were probably continuously ignored.
(I still have to say it makes me mad that the teacher we read about in the Anyon article did not care about the child's broken pencil)
Hooks also mentions jobs:
"When we were not devoting ourselves to books and to poetry we
confronted a real world where we were in need ofjobs. Even though' I taught an occasional class, [ worked in the world of the mundane. I worked at a bookstore, cooked at a club. worked for the telephone company. "
The schooling Hooks also received also more than likely allowed her to believe the type of job she would have would be just that, a job, not a career. She was trained to follow orders, never thinking for herself, a place where the African American could remain at the bottom. I'm sure Oliver and Shapiro would very much agree with this statement as well as Hook's observations, but one fact that would exclude them from agreeing would be the subject of race. While acknowledging that the poor white girls had a different set of ideals than the rich white girls, Hooks mentions her white friends within the same class as her.
confronted a real world where we were in need ofjobs. Even though' I taught an occasional class, [ worked in the world of the mundane. I worked at a bookstore, cooked at a club. worked for the telephone company. "
The schooling Hooks also received also more than likely allowed her to believe the type of job she would have would be just that, a job, not a career. She was trained to follow orders, never thinking for herself, a place where the African American could remain at the bottom. I'm sure Oliver and Shapiro would very much agree with this statement as well as Hook's observations, but one fact that would exclude them from agreeing would be the subject of race. While acknowledging that the poor white girls had a different set of ideals than the rich white girls, Hooks mentions her white friends within the same class as her.
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