discussion Sharing Passages from Freire&Working with Thesis Statements with hooks

8/31/2020 主题: Working with Thesis Statements with hooks

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Working with Thesis Statements with hooks 5

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Now that you've read bell hooks' essay, we're going to spend some time thinking about what she is arguing in it. Have you ever heard someone say "everything is an argument"? The idea means that usually people are not really just telling you something for the sake of talking about it-- they are actually trying to convince you of something. Even though hooks' essay includes a lot of personal anecdotes and reflections, she ultimately is making some different arguments that she is hoping to convince her readers to agree with by the end of the essay.

For this discussion post, please look back through "Keeping Close to Home" and pick out at least TWO passages where you see hooks stating an argument she wishes to convince us to of. Similar to our previous discussion, type the two passages in a post below and then explain, in your own words, what she is trying to convince us of. By the way, putting her quotes into your own words is called "paraphrasing." More on that later.

For this assignment, you should respond to ONE peer, letting them know if you can add on to their paraphrase or if you disagree with how they paraphrased it. If so, please let them know how you would paraphrase it to make it more accurate or complete.

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(https:// Yingxin Xu (https://canvas.pasadena.edu/courses/1110549/users/3793249) 10:30

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8/31/2020 主题: Working with Thesis Statements with hooks

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由 Yingxin Xu (https://canvas.pasadena.edu/courses/1110549/users/3793249) 于 8月31日 13:00 编辑

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Working with Thesis Statements with hooks "I want to speak about these contradictions because sorting through them, seeking resolution and reconciliation has been important to me both as it affects my development as a writer, my effort to be fully self- realized, and my longing to remain close to the family and community that provide the groundwork for much of my thinking, writing, and being" (Hooks, 102). "Education as the practice of freedom becomes not a force which fragments or separates, but one that brings us closer, expanding our definitions of home and community" (Hooks, 112). Following the two passages, Hook is trying to convince us that once the working class and the poor understanding and value their ancient times, they can remain linked with their families and communities even though they shift towards a changed lifestyle that is brought about by education. Furthermore, he attempts to emphasize the fact that education has to bring individuals nearer to their backgrounds and societies instead of separating them as it is narrated in the general story. Additionally, regardless of being a working-class or needy person, we should support the accomplishments of the individuals who chose education; in the same way, educated working class and disadvantaged individuals must sustain and avow their relative's values. For instance, even if he never attended college classes, her dad lived with a discipline that she employed in her academic life. Finally, remaining connected with family and community gives an impression of appreciating and accepting the aspects of the history that have enhanced an individual's life. It is not appropriate to reject your culture or past, such as adopting new cultures that are not equal to where you come from as well as disagreeing with the community social patterns just because you are in college or graduated.

(https:// Brian Mo (https://canvas.pasadena.edu/courses/1110549/users/3787948) 15:12

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" Concurrently, the use of a language and style of presentation that alienate most folks who are not also academically trained reinforces the notion that the academic world is separate from real life, that everyday world where we constantly adjust our language and behavior to meet diverse needs. The academic setting is separate only when we work to make it so. It is a false dichotomy which suggests that academics and/or intellectuals can only speak to one another, that we cannot hope to speak with the masses." (Hooks, 106)

8/31/2020 主题: Working with Thesis Statements with hooks

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"... if you believe what you have learned and are learning in schools and universities separates you from your past, this is precisely what will happen. " (Hooks, 108)

Hooks is arguing that education nowadays is working against our history and culture, that what we're mostly learning is of history unrelated to our own, making many minorities feel like they are being left out. Hooks is also trying to argue that academic world is different from the rest of our world, in that we can not use the language and style that we use when talking to our family, for example, in the academic world. This is because a lot of the academic language that we see used is different from the normal simplistic language used in everyday interactions. Hooks also provides an example where her own book is disapproved or looked down upon by the scholarly world because of the non-academic approach she uses.

(http Maranda Stelly (https://canvas.pasadena.edu/courses/1110549/users/3741431) 17:15

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Hi Brian, I'm not sure where in these passages Hooks is talking about learning about history separate from one's own. I think she is trying to get across that if you go into school, thinking that this now separates you from your past, then that belief will make it so, or in other words, that belief is a self fulfilling prophecy. As for the second part of your paraphrase, I believe Hooks is arguing against academia being a place where you cannot use simple language, calling it a "false dichotomy." That it is only a place not to use simple language if we make it that way.

(https:// Jennifer Jerebicz (https://canvas.pasadena.edu/courses/1110549/users/3793597) 15:17

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In "Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education", bell hook's tries to convince us how important it is to value one's family even through hard times and away at school. When she attends Stanford, she notices other students who had values that contradicted her own, such as the lack of respect for their parents. Even though she has encountered hardship in her family relationships, she was brought up to remain respectful of her parents and family background."While I often needed more money,

8/31/2020 主题: Working with Thesis Statements with hooks

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由 Jennifer Jerebicz (https://canvas.pasadena.edu/courses/1110549/users/3793597) 于 8月31日 15:18 编辑

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I never needed a new set of beliefs and values. For example I was profoundly shocked and disturbed when peers would talk about their parents without respect, or would even say that they hated their parents. This was especially troubling to me when it seemed that these parents were caring and concerned. It was often explained to me that such hatred was "healthy and normal. " To my white, middle-class California roommate, I explained the way we were taught to value our parents and their care, to understand that they were not obligated to give us care." (hooks, 103). To convince us of the importance of values and respect to one's family, she provides an example in her life that shows us how her mother wasn't all that supportive of her school education. Despite of this, we know that she still loves and shows respect towards her mother. "My parent's ambivalence about my love for reading led to intense conflict. They (especially my mother) would work to ensure that I had access to books, but would threaten to burn the books or throw them away if I did not conform to other expectations. Or they would insist that reading too much would drive me insane." (hooks, 107).

(https:// Maranda Stelly (https://canvas.pasadena.edu/courses/1110549/users/3741431) 17:03

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"Increasingly, young black people are encouraged by the dominant culture (and by those black people who internalize the values of this hegemony) to believe that assimilation is the only passible way to survive, to succeed. Without the framework of an organized civil rights or black resistance struggle, individual and collective efforts at black liberation that focus on the primacy of self-definition and self-determination often go unrecognized. It is crucial that those among us who resist and rebel, who survive and succeed, speak openly and honestly about our lives and the nature of our personal struggles, the means by which we resolve and reconcile contradictions. This is no easy task. Within the educational institutions where we learn to develop and strengthen our writing and analytical skills, we also learn to think, write, and talk in a manner that shifts attention away from personal experience. Yet if we are to reach our people and all people, if we are to remain connected (especially those of us whose familial backgrounds are poor and working-class), we must understand that the telling of one's personal story provides a meaningful example, a way for folks to identify and connect." (Hooks, 104)

In this passage, Bell Hooks starts by explaining the misconception that the only way to become successful in academia is to assimilate to white, elite culture. She goes on to plead to not lose connection with one's background, but instead to embrace it.

8/31/2020 主题: Working with Thesis Statements with hooks

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由 Maranda Stelly (https://canvas.pasadena.edu/courses/1110549/users/3741431) 于 8月31日 17:05 编辑

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To use one's language and experience to connect and communicate with the poor and working-class. She's arguing against classism and elitism in academia.

"Always our first response when we are motivated to conform or compromise within structures that reinforce domination must be to engage in critical reflection. Only by challenging ourselves to push against oppressive boundaries do we make the radical alternative possible, expanding the realm and scope of critical inquiry. Unless we share radical strategies, ways of rethinking and revisioning with students, with kin and community, with a larger audience, we risk perpetuating the stereotype that we succeed because we are the exception, different from the rest of our people." (Hooks, 111)

Hooks is urging her readers to think outside of the box, to bring forth ways and means to connect with and show one's background, risk succumbing to the status quo. She is trying to convince her black readers, or readers coming from underprivileged backgrounds, to get creative in how they can bring those backgrounds into the forefront, to make diverse populations in academia the norm.