Teaching high school feminism is a powerful experience: My students struggle with important questions every day, and together we try to carry the theories we study into practice in our own lives.
My students come from all over the East Bay, and are extraordinarily diverse in all ways.
They are curious, thoughtful and highly creative. They're searching for new ways of connecting their own lived experiences to the classroom, and our high school feminism class is where these interests intersect.
My Project
I have built a feminist library by buying used books for the past two years. It has nearly 30 titles today, but many of the books are showing their wear and it is an incomplete collection. This assortment of nearly 30 new titles including Sister Outsider, Zami and Loving in the War Years, will allow my students to truly have choice in what they read. Many of these books speak directly to their experiences as young people of color, and are an important supplement to our conversations about intersectional feminism.
Unlike in any other class I've taught, my feminism students are excited to explore the titles in this library and I frequently hear them talking about what they've read with their friends.
I know from experience that these books change my students' lives.
They share them with their friends, with their mothers, and with their younger brothers. They read them again and again. The feminist library is a living place where my students come, on their own initiative, to borrow books that speak to their experiences. Every single title will be read by many students this year and for years to come.
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