A review by srfrq
We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina Love
3.0
while this book was quite informative, it built mostly on what i already knew through bell hooks' and angela davis' teachings. one thing that was new was a term described by the author as the 'educational survival complex' which i thought she would delve more into but she didn't. i appreciated the explanation of education and its connection to racism and colonialism, as that was an insight i had thought about but never able to articulate myself. the author provided a historically accurate explanation for this.
here are some quotes that stuck out to me:
“students are left learning to merely survive, learning how schools mimic the world they live in, thus making schools a training site for a life of exhaustion” (on the educational survival complex)
“schools are mirrors of our society; educational justice cannot and will not happen in a vacuum or with pedagogies that undergird the educational survival complex. we need pedagogies that support social movements."
“my dignity was never to be compromised, which meant never compromising my voice and my connection to how i mattered in this world. when you compromise your voice, you compromise your dignity. no dignity, no power.”
“too often we think the work of fighting oppression is just intellectual. the real work is personal, emotional, spiritual, and communal.”
“i mean to teach them to demand what anna julia cooper called 'undisputed dignity.' to call for 'recognition of one’s inherent humanity' with the courage, persistence, vigilance, and the visionary imagination of an abolitionist.”
“The economic downturn that led to an employment crisis was happening in my city at the same time america rebooted slavery through a war on drugs, which is code for a “war on dark people,” or what michelle alexander calls “the new jim crow.” before the war on drugs slogan took hold, president richard nixon declared drug abuse “public enemy number one.” however, it is the administration of president ronald reagan that is responsible for the mass imprisonment of dark people. in 1980, there were less than half a million people in prison in the US. twenty years later that number had reached close to 2.2 million.15 president reagan’s policies emphasized imprisoning drug offenders while cutting funding for addiction treatment, privatizing prisons, and disenfranchising millions of dark americans from their right to vote.”
"the educational survival complex adopts the school-to-prison pipeline because we all live in a carceral state, increasing deportation for queer undocumented youth."
“freedom dreaming gives teachers a collective space to methodically tear down the educational survival complex and collectively rebuild a school system that truly loves all children and sees schools as children’s homeplaces, where students are encouraged to give this world hell."
“understanding neoliberalism is an important lens to understanding how society keeps us at odds with each other and fighting over the scraps left after the rich have gutted systems that are supposed to help those with the least.”
here are some quotes that stuck out to me:
“students are left learning to merely survive, learning how schools mimic the world they live in, thus making schools a training site for a life of exhaustion” (on the educational survival complex)
“schools are mirrors of our society; educational justice cannot and will not happen in a vacuum or with pedagogies that undergird the educational survival complex. we need pedagogies that support social movements."
“my dignity was never to be compromised, which meant never compromising my voice and my connection to how i mattered in this world. when you compromise your voice, you compromise your dignity. no dignity, no power.”
“too often we think the work of fighting oppression is just intellectual. the real work is personal, emotional, spiritual, and communal.”
“i mean to teach them to demand what anna julia cooper called 'undisputed dignity.' to call for 'recognition of one’s inherent humanity' with the courage, persistence, vigilance, and the visionary imagination of an abolitionist.”
“The economic downturn that led to an employment crisis was happening in my city at the same time america rebooted slavery through a war on drugs, which is code for a “war on dark people,” or what michelle alexander calls “the new jim crow.” before the war on drugs slogan took hold, president richard nixon declared drug abuse “public enemy number one.” however, it is the administration of president ronald reagan that is responsible for the mass imprisonment of dark people. in 1980, there were less than half a million people in prison in the US. twenty years later that number had reached close to 2.2 million.15 president reagan’s policies emphasized imprisoning drug offenders while cutting funding for addiction treatment, privatizing prisons, and disenfranchising millions of dark americans from their right to vote.”
"the educational survival complex adopts the school-to-prison pipeline because we all live in a carceral state, increasing deportation for queer undocumented youth."
“freedom dreaming gives teachers a collective space to methodically tear down the educational survival complex and collectively rebuild a school system that truly loves all children and sees schools as children’s homeplaces, where students are encouraged to give this world hell."
“understanding neoliberalism is an important lens to understanding how society keeps us at odds with each other and fighting over the scraps left after the rich have gutted systems that are supposed to help those with the least.”