Day 50 – The half-way point

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Day 50 – I had a bit of trouble with today’s post – I’m starting to feel the sadness of this time on sabbatical coming to a close.  I’m struggling with my own feelings of doubt, vulnerability, completion, and pride.  It’s always hard for me to accomplish something – partly due to the imposter syndrome that I (and many first-generation professionals) feel, but also because I worry about it setting me apart (a feeling that always plagues me – that feeling of not really belonging). Still, it’s always reassuring to read something that inspires me, and today’s inspiration was found once again by bell hooks.

 

In 2010, hooks published another book in her “teaching” series, this one entitled, Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom. As I prepare to go back to teaching this summer, I’ve been thinking once again about how to teach foundational theories of expressive arts therapy that were not written with a multicultural or critical mindset.  In her essay, Teaching 18: Learning past the hate, hooks notes that the inclusion of diverse voices in the curriculum did not prohibit folks from reading the classics, rather it encouraged folks to think critically about what they were reading.

 

hooks asks us to consider writing that may include biased and prejudicial thinking with an understanding that the writer often has “multiple intentions.”

 

I’ve been thinking a lot about the “canon” within expressive arts therapy.  Part of the challenge, for me, of the canon is that it has primarily been written without much critique, commentary, or contextualization of the cultural or socio-political zeitgeist in which it was written or conceived.  The disconnection then from the contexts in which these ideas are to be applied creates considerable labor as I try to understand and teach this canon within my classes, where I and my students are often trying to dismantle and problematize imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal hegemony.