The recent "feminization" of composition theory and pedagogy has replaced the classroom figure of the authoritative father with an image of a nurturing mother. But as bell hooks and others insist, the classroom is inherently a place of struggle and conflict and the "real world" is even more so. Hooks offers concrete alternatives to the usual feminist approach. First, she insists that feminist teachers recognize how their roles as teachers give them power over students. Instead of resisting that power for fear of exercising domination, hooks argues that feminist teachers can use that power in ways that enrich the learning process. Hooks also insists on a unity of theory and practice. Rather than assuming that her approach will speak for itself, she explains to students from day one what will be different (i.e., not politically neutral) about her class. She uses a confrontational classroom style that encourages students to "come to voice" in a risky environment. This contradicts the image of the female teacher as maternal authority figure. And because hooks aims at making education "more rather than less real," she encourages students to relate what they are learning in class to their changing personal identities and then to place their own ideas in a more critical framework. Other feminist teachers affirm hooks' strategies by asserting that power and authority do belong in the feminist classroom and that power and struggle are vital parts of revolutionary feminist pedagogy. (SAM)