Keeping Close To Home Class And Education Bell Hooks Analysis

Because it is very credible, emotionally appealing, and slightly academically based, bell hooks's essay "Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education" is an essay that I consider to be very touching. While arguing in her essay that the rich class and the working-class should come to respect and understand each other, bell hooks employs three elements of argument: ethos, pathos, and logos. With her usage of ethos, hooks relates her experience as an undergraduate at Stanford. Providing an experience from a time before she went to Stanford, hooks uses pathos to inspire the audience. However, hooks uses logos by appealing to the readers' logic. These readers are the working-class and the privileged, the audience of her book: "Ain't I

Schools systematically subjugate minority and black students when a school’s enrollment contains a huge racial majority. If students have no exposure to persons of different ethnicities, cultures, races, and religions, then these students will experience culture shock when they confront “other” people. Even in our class, we talk about black and minority students as another group, one that differs from “us.” We think about the inequalities in school systems as problems we need to fix, not as problems that have influenced our thinking and affect us as prospective teachers. For example, a white graduate student with

As Bell Hooks speaks about in her essay “Learning In The Shadow Of Race And Class,” certain college students, such as herself, appear to have “boundaries” placed upon them that cause great struggle. Typically there is a reason behind these “boundaries,” and in some cases it may be the fault of the person that is enduring these struggles, whether they realize it or not. While Bell is not completely at fault for how she lives her life, the way Bell Hooks was raised helped shape the way she would view her life and the people around her. Bell’s mother’s methods of raising a child are what led her to hate her time in school as much as she did, and how she will live her life afterwards.

The first way she depart from the black community is when she decided to leave her friends and family and run off with Tea Cake away from those she loved and cared truly about. By doing this she demonstrates that she is pulling further away from the idea of the traditional harlem renaissance. A way that she reflects with the harlem renaissance is when her and Jody ran off and decided to build and increase the acknowledgement of an all black town. By this being shown is supports the idea of them reflecting the harlem renaissance and how the unity of the black community is still alive and affecting African Americans in a positive manner and tone.

In his work entitled “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts”, journalist and author Alfred Lubrano poses the question of how receiving education can lead to a harsh reality. Lubrano explains that as a child works toward a higher education, there are certain aspects of life they are forced to leave behind as they enter into a new existence. According to Lubrano’s statement, “At night, at home, the differences in the Columbia experiences my father and I were having was becoming more evident” (532). Additionally, Lubrano states, “We talked about general stuff, and I learned to self-censor. I’d seen how ideas could be upsetting, especially when wielded by a smarmy freshman who barely knew what he was talking about” (533). In answering this question, Lubrano must explore the types of conversations that occurred with other family members, the disconnection from his peers, and how segregating himself from his family

Starting her second education, she was forced to drop out to care for her ailing grandmother. With Jim Crow’s Law, heavily in affect, her childhood was greatly influenced by the segregation between white people and black people in almost every part of their lives.

James Baldwin was an African American author who grew up in Harlem. In his “Talk to Teachers”, he discusses how society connects to education. He shows that society shapes a child’s education by conditioning and telling them how to view their place in life. According to Baldwin, society shows that there are unfair rules and regulations in a country that is supposed to believe and practice freedom. When the child grows up, they will realize that they do not have equal opportunities as other children and will then question their own identities. To fix these contradictions, Baldwin believes education should “create the ability to look at the world for himself.” He also believed that a child should “examine everything in order to achieve change and a sense of their own identity.”

On the very first day of the class, Introduction to the Black Experience, we learned that people are defined by their culture and geography. We are also defined by the gaze of others and our own gaze. This realization led me to contemplate what the “black experience” means to me. As a first generation Haitian-American woman at Wellesley College, it has become clearer to me how important the language and culture of parents has been in shaping my identity. I have also begun to think more critically about how my identity as a woman of color separates me from black brothers as well as my white peers at Wellesley.

She often found herself the only Black face in her classroom, and sometimes felt she did not fit in with the larger culture that surrounded her.

She herself was put in the education system thinking she must assimilate, but with perseverance and the determination to succeed on her own terms, she was seen as the exception in her culture. Being "the exception," angered Hooks and made her more determined to help children rid themselves of this stereotype. Being successful in education means it was hard fought and deserved not just an "exception." In trying to establish an identity that borders their own culture and one that 's accepted within the education system, children are often teased, ridiculed, and mocked. This continues until they conform to the behavior accepted by their peers. Children are often taught to disregard family values and traditions which undermines a child 's character. Having a teacher or peer reinforce the fact that their behavior isn 't acceptable has devastating and lasting effects on children because they don 't know any better. Language is a good example of a difficulty a minority child might have when encountering an educational setting. In order to be successful, a child must have the opportunity to relate both with their community and their educational system to take one away with little explanation leaves a child confused. As Bell Hooks says, "that to deny ourselves daily use of speech patterns that are common and familiar, that embody the unique and distinctive aspect of our self is one of the ways we become estranged and alienated

Beverly Tatum 's "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?"and Ann DuCille 's Multicultural Barbie and the Merchandising of Difference demonstrate what it means to be an African American adolescent in today 's time. One of the obstacles that African American adolescents face is the expectations of others. Often a single comment is all that is needed to imply to a student how another feels about their potential. For example, Tatum describes the experience of Malcolm X. Although Malcolm X was separated from his family and living in a foster home, he was a star athlete, a class president, and an A student. Despite his success as an adolescent, he was told by a respected teacher that his goal of becoming a lawyer was "no realistic goal for a nigger." (Tatum 379) As the result of this single comment, Malcolm stopped participating in class, thereby hindering any current educational opportunities. This expectation from Malcolm 's teacher changed his educational experience making him adhere to his racial

Leading a meaningful life meant breaking away from the fear of criticism or rejection; conforming to society limits Illgunas’ definition of life. Illgunas’ suburban upbringing makes the danger of social conformity clear to him. Surrendering to society would consequently cause him to completely lose himself. After graduating from high school, Illgunas and his classmates follow the conventional path towards a higher education. Illgunas explains, “My high school class and I moved like a school of fish: we graduates were capable of going off on our own, in whatever direction we chose, but something demanded we all swim as one…” (6-7). Parallel to the claim Illgunas makes, graduates that do not attend college are stigmatized. Society has created a paradigm: after graduating high school, students should attend a traditional four year university, and then enter the “career world.” In Illgunas’ perspective, people in

In this chapter, bell hooks describes her experience with class privilege in college. Her race and socioeconomic status made her stick out from her classmates, which made her a target for their stares and torments. Her financial situation also made it hard for her to get into a college that she felt comfortable at. Hooks’ struggles ultimately made college hard for her, and left her feeling bitter and troubled about her achievements.

Higher Learning is a book made into a film which carries deep social and cultural issues that has plagued America since the time of its establishment. In this book, the author John Singleton sheds light on the never ending issues of education, racist, sexual abuse; social class, gender, and sexual orientation are faced head on. As a collection of freshman college students from all different walks of life they all come as one at Columbus University having to clash with stereotypes and prejudice in a new atmosphere. For illustration in the book, a ordinary white teenager from Idaho has a culture shock at his new school joins a Nazi bunch of criminals because they are the first friends he made,

The first five years are the most influential of a childs entire life. Since education starts at this early age, I feel that parents are responsible to teach their children social skills. The parents need to explain why we are all different and that our differences are good, otherwise we would all be exactly the same, and that would be boring. These simple facts would help keep the children open-minded. The traditions we acquire and pass on are learned, and add to our character. Our background, whether we are Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, Asian, rich or poor, smart or unintelligent or anything else, makes us who we are and knowing this is important so that we are not ashamed of these things. Hooks was ashamed of these things. She wanted no one to know her class difference, or how her parents were uneducated, as she states in this quote, I talked to no one about the sources of my shameI talked to no one about my efforts to save money, to send a little something home. Yet these class realities