Quotation
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“The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy.”
bell hooks · Feminist theory · Modern · 1994
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the sentence as a claim about where, inside a university, a different kind of education can still happen. The classroom, she says, remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy. A competing reading hears that classrooms are already free, or that the rest of the institution does not matter. The same page says the classroom has also been used for opportunistic concerns rather than as a place to learn, and she celebrates teaching that enables transgressions, a movement against and beyond boundaries. Possibility is not a description of the average hour. It is the stake she thinks that room still holds. The sentence is page 12 of Teaching to Transgress, her English, and it includes remains. It is not the love sentences in All About Love, and it is not the later line that the classroom remains a location of possibility. Those are different pages and, in one case, a different book.
Did bell hooks really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. hooks's own English, on page 12 of Teaching to Transgress: the classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy. A later page says the classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility, which is a different sentence. It is not a line from All About Love.
Where it comes from
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (1994), p. 12
Approximate date: 1994.
How to use it
A seminar in a university in Manchester that quotes the sentence on the syllabus and then runs the hour so that only one voice is safe has kept the compliment and refused the practice. She thinks the possibility has to be made, by teachers and students, against the habits that make the room small. The sentence does not say every classroom is radical. It says that room is where the most radical possibility in the academy is located, which is a reason to work in it, not a trophy for having booked it.
A mindset reading
Most radical is a comparison inside the academy, not a claim that no other room in a life can matter more. Page 12 already says remains. A later page uses location of possibility, and that later sentence should be cited as its own page. The love book is a different argument. Do not use this line to make All About Love sound like a theory of teaching.
Understand the philosophy
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, 1994, page 12. The key phrase is remains the most radical space of possibility. The wording is hers. All About Love, already in this library in two sentences, is the 2000 book and is not this claim. The lowercase name is hers. This card is the third sentence, and it is from the teaching book on purpose, so the love book is not asked to supply every line.
- knowledge
- freedom
- society
FAQ
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the sentence as a claim about where, inside a university, a different kind of education can still happen. The classroom, she says, remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy. A competing reading hears that classrooms are already free, or that the rest of the institution does not matter. The same page says the classroom has also been used for opportunistic concerns rather than as a place to learn, and she celebrates teaching that enables transgressions, a movement against and beyond boundaries. Possibility is not a description of the average hour. It is the stake she thinks that room still holds. The sentence is page 12 of Teaching to Transgress, her English, and it includes remains. It is not the love sentences in All About Love, and it is not the later line that the classroom remains a location of possibility. Those are different pages and, in one case, a different book.
Did bell hooks really say this?
Well attested. hooks's own English, on page 12 of Teaching to Transgress: the classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy. A later page says the classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility, which is a different sentence. It is not a line from All About Love.
Which work is it in?
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (1994), p. 12 Approximate date: 1994.