![]() ![]() But do we talk about education as a practice of freedom? We say we want critical thinking and active learners, but as teachers do we realize it’s not our role to empower learners, but to learn with them. Many of us in the learning and development field talk about challenging the “banking system of education” as Freire calls it (put rote knowledge in, then take it out in tests) as if the participants were empty vessels to be filled. Reading her words I felt I’d come home again. Teaching, says bell hooks, is in part a sacred vocation and education is a practice of freedom. But it was her principles that reminded me why I stayed in adult education all these years. I was so surprised to learn that her early “teachers” or inspirations included Paulo Freire and Thich Nhat Hanh. After bell hooks, feminist and critical theorist on race, gender, and cultural politics passed away in December of 2021, I began to read one of her early books: Teaching to Transgress. ![]()
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