Abstract
A disclosure—prior to reviewing this book, I did not know who Hal Adams (1939–2011) was. Now I do. I know his pedagogy, his vision, and his spirit (henceforth, he will be Hal as his work and life seem familiar). He calls me back to adult education before neoliberalism, and education as a commodity driven by market-based mechanisms.
Adult educators who facilitate writing workshops in prisons or community based settings will recognize Hal's methods: problem posing, active listening, shared leadership, writing as social justice, equalizing practice, therapeutic community, and sociological imagination. For decades, Hal was a university professor and community activist developing writing groups in Iowa, Seattle, Chicago, and Minneapolis, teaching for individual and collective transformation. These adult writing workshops embraced those marginalized by race, gender, class, and access to quality education. Hal created emotionally and educationally safe spaces before that term was normalized—respect, reparation, and love reportedly marked his work. Publishing validated the voices of all writers whose counter stories were read in community. He lived democratic pedagogy where everyone is both student and teacher, and actualized Gramsci's concept of organic intellectual and everyone is a philosopher from which the title of this book comes.
Every Person is a Philosopher: Lessons in Educational Emancipation is volume ten in the Peter Lang series, Teaching Contemporary Scholars. The 11 chapters open with an editors’ introduction and brief biological sketch of Hal by Ayers, Heller, and Hurtig. Chapter 1 and the final chapter are written by Hal. Chapter 1, “A Grassroots Think Tank” outlines his pedagogy, introduces his theoretical perspectives drawn from Gramsci, Freire, and C. L. R. James, and highlights Journal of Ordinary Thought, a student written publication. The remainder of the chapters are written by Hal's colleagues, mentees, collaborators, and friends including personal narrative of how the authors met Hal, where they worked, and the impact Hal had on them personally and professionally.
All chapters are of interest, but chapter 7 “Philosophers in La Casita”: Hal Adams Politics in Theory and Practice” by Carlson and Staudenmaier especially captures the complexities and history of this humble man. Staudenmair describes Hal's membership in the Sojourner Truth Organization (STO) in the 1970s and 80s, a Chicago based intellectual and radical left group engaged in revolutionary theory emphasizing labor organizing. Years later circa 2002, Carlson recalls family literacy with Hal at “La Casita” a Chicago community center and his pedagogy of humanization (p. 97). She documents his intense listening, being present, sharing his own writing, and writing for collective social change that were Hal's model. Carlson questions Hal's model in affecting social change. “Participants lives were validated and they became more self-aware, but this did not lead to an analysis of the systems and institutions which marginalized and oppressed the participant and their communities” (p. 98).
The chapter ends with the activist writers and parents fighting for preservation of “La Casita” against city officials and its final demolition. The complexities, strengths, and shortcomings of Hal's model of social change through collective community writing workshops are broached.
What all chapters communicate is the warmth and authenticity of Hal. In spite of his white male privilege, he taught from a position of anti-racism and inclusivity and a belief that “only the collective efforts of ordinary people can make a better world” (p. 5). Several photographs intersperse the book as well as handwritten excerpts of participant writing. A limitation is that we do not hear from Hal more often; it maybe that he did not publish prolifically, so we see him through the perspective of others. This is our loss.
Adult educators and community college instructors will find this book illustrative of how to run writing groups or workshops. Prison writing programs, adult/family literacy, ESOL and GED programs, pre-college and introduction to college programs, should consider using this text for training purposes. Graduate students in adult education should read this as an example of theory to practice. Finally, veteran adult educators would do well to read and remember through Hal's example what drew some of us to adult education in the first place.
This slender book reminds me that writing can be an act of resistance, activism, healing, and community building. It reminds me how one life, Hal's, can transform so many others. It reminds me of the transformative power of ordinary people coming together to write and share in community, and how that power should not be eclipsed by neoliberal perspectives.