Benji Hart

Benji Hart is an interdisciplinary artist, author, and educator. Their words have appeared in numerous anthologies, and been published at Teen Vogue, Time, and The Advocate. The have been a fellow with Yaddo, Trillium Arts, and MacDowell. See more of their work at BenjiHart.com

Benji Hart has written 7 posts for Cooperative Catalyst

Learning the Vernacular: Slang in the Classroom

Posted by Benji Hart ⋅ November 8, 2012 ⋅ 2 Comments

My sixth grade teacher was the only Black male educator in our entire school system when I had him as an eleven year old. In my racially and economically diverse elementary school, virtually all the Black children in each grade were put into his class every year–a fact which as a young student upset me. … Continue reading →

Choosing Our Battles: Standing By the Communities We Seek to Challenge

Posted by Benji Hart ⋅ July 28, 2012 ⋅ 2 Comments

This is an article which recently appeared on my blog RADICAL FAGGOT, which David asked me to consider reposting here on the Co-op. Though this piece does not directly address education, it does ask questions about how we negotiate our allegiances to multiple and sometimes conflicting communities and struggles. I would be interested to learn … Continue reading →

Traditions of Struggle: Teaching as a Spiritual Practice

Posted by Benji Hart ⋅ April 18, 2012 ⋅ 6 Comments

“Struggling myself don’t mean a whole lot, I’ve come to realize/that teaching others to stand and fight is the only way my struggle survives.” – Bernice Johnson Reagon, Sweet Honey in the Rock I have been thinking a great deal lately about whether being a classroom teacher is actually what I envision myself doing. There … Continue reading →

We Are the Present: Why Youth Voices are Necessary

Posted by Benji Hart ⋅ January 22, 2012 ⋅ 3 Comments

In many of the educational and teacher training programs I have been a part of, I’ve been frustrated by the intense focus given to preparing students for their academic futures (meaning standardized testing and ultimately college) while virtually none has been placed on creativity, question asking and critical thought. Indeed, if I were to take … Continue reading →

Being a Student Ally: Teachers as Necessary Voices of Protest

Posted by Benji Hart ⋅ December 26, 2011 ⋅ 8 Comments

A few months ago I was teaching a somewhat uninspiring writing curriculum to a group of sixth graders as part of teacher training program. As young educators, participants in the training were expected to prepare original lessons from a pre-written curriculum and teach them to classes of about twenty students on a daily basis. We … Continue reading →

Who Is the ‘We’: An Education for Us

Posted by Benji Hart ⋅ December 15, 2011 ⋅ 11 Comments

The week before November break at my school saw much of the pageantry and lead-up which precedes the Thanksgiving recesses in so many U.S. learning communities. The hallways were filled with handprint turkeys, and almost every classroom was engaged in some discussion of the encounter between European and Native Peoples which occurred sometime in the … Continue reading →

Are Teachers Activists?

Posted by Benji Hart ⋅ December 9, 2011 ⋅ 42 Comments

My father was a first generation college student. Raised in rural Massachusetts on public assistance, he comes from a large group of siblings, and one of the only Black families in the area. Excelling in school from an early age, he was identified by several of his teachers as gifted, and my grandmother in particular … Continue reading →