We Want to Do More Than Survive

Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom

By: Bettina Love

Narrated by: Misty Monroe

Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the 2020 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award

Drawing on personal stories, research, and historical events, an esteemed educator offers a vision of educational justice inspired by the rebellious spirit and methods of abolitionists.

Drawing on her life’s work of teaching and researching in urban schools, Bettina Love persuasively argues that educators must teach students about racial violence, oppression, and how to make sustainable change in their communities through radical civic initiatives and movements. She argues that the US educational system is maintained by and profits from the suffering of children of color. Instead of trying to repair a flawed system, educational reformers offer survival tactics in the forms of test-taking skills, acronyms, grit labs, and character education, which Love calls the educational survival complex.

To dismantle the educational survival complex and to achieve educational freedom - not merely reform - teachers, parents, and community leaders must approach education with the imagination, determination, boldness, and urgency of an abolitionist. Following in the tradition of activists like Ella Baker, Bayard Rustin, and Fannie Lou Hamer, We Want to Do More Than Survive introduces an alternative to traditional modes of educational reform and expands our ideas of civic engagement and intersectional justice.

©2019 Bettina Love (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A useful rejoinder, half a century on, to Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed; deserving of a broad audience among teachers and educational policymakers.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Through unflinching and daring inquiry, Dr. Bettina Love has stepped out on faith to articulate our pain, suffering, and eternal search for joy. Her words resurrect the abolitionist credo of ‘education’ over ‘school.’ Because they are two different things, the question remains: can school be the place where education happens or do we need to radically rethink what we’re doing? Dr. Love’s work suggests that if we do not choose the latter, we are complicit in our own demise.” (David Stovall, professor of African American studies and criminology, law, and justice, University of Illinois at Chicago, and co-author of Twenty-First-Century Jim Crow Schools) 

“This text is helpful for gaining a better grasp of oppression and what teachers can do about it.” (Library Journal)

Must read for all parents and educators

I would have preferred this to have been read by Dr. Love but I got over that. I kept stopping the book to take notes. This may be one hat is better in hard copy. A must read. As a 20 year veteran educator, there were lots of new concepts that I hadn’t thought about. Should be included in all teacher-trainer programs.

Had potential...

This book is certainly speaking about an important message. My primary complaint is that I do not think that it is written in a manner that either 1) gives people already knowledgeable in the area new information, or 2) eases newcomers to the topic. The author seemed to provide details where I needed none in some places, while staying high level and/or making unsubstantiated claims in other places where details would have strengthen the argument. While I found myself getting emotional and resonating with certain parts of the book, I was ultimately confused with whom the intended audience was.

At best this book could do well in a book club-type setting where people who otherwise do not interact with each other can have a reason to gather around and talk about some important issues of this world. Incidentally, a book club is exactly why I read this book in the first place. But as someone who has read So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo, I would rather be doing a book club on that book.

necessary read for 2020

it might take some time to digest, but this is a necessary read for 2020

If I could go back in time

I wish I’d had this book, this teacher, this eye and mind opening words fill my preservice education-if I could go back and recraft my undergrad and grad courses. I can’t go back, so going forward I will strive be an abolitionist teacher-friend-community member-colleague. Thank you Dr. Love.

Everything is racist

This book is just a rant that blames everything bad in education on whiteness and racism. You can acknowledge the legacy of racism in America without absolving people of personal responsibility. This author's answer for everything is racism. No tangible solutions are given for what needs to be done to fix schools.

Powerful and impactful read

so much truth that is identifiable and relatable to the reader. As an individual who attended school across town of the lottery tickets did it. There is a lot here that weighs heavy on my lens of interpretation of the world.

Must read

As a white woman working on higher Ed this book feels like a mandatory read. I especially appreciate Love's continued consideration of intersectionality and how it relates to her topic.

Phenomenal

This has to be one of my top books regarding race & education. I appreciate that intersectionality was threaded throughout the text. Anybody that is connected to education should read this, from the teacher to the superintendent.

Excellent text for (and from) an educator

As a mid-career educator myself, I found Ms. Love's directness and insights valuably clarifying. I've been away from America many years and a sea of change has occurred in my absence. Reading in the papers is not living it day-to-day. Ms. Love's work shares both rich perspective and specific ideas for positive impact that I am grateful for. Looking forward to her next book Punished for Dreaming, which comes out in September.
Also, I appreciated the closing recommendation of When Grit Isn't Enough that was tagged onto the end of the credits so I could continue in the same line of thinking in the interim.
Cheers ~ great work.

Super powerful and necessary for all of us

Dr. Love’s work presents relevant theories within a timely framework of critical consciousness and shares what remains truly important for our children and the education of generations to come.

A love letter to the world of freedom in education

I liked it all especially the need and urgent gap on teachers training in cultures. There is a line at the very beginning that grabbed my attention to why this matters: ". . .to remind you how worthless human being you are".