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)

necessary read for 2020

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

A necessary journey

This book was a necessary journey for me. It hit right at the crossroads of deciding if I’m going to be another “good” “black” teacher, or if I’m going to be an abolitionist teacher. I chose the latter.
Thank you @bettinalove for the road map.
~Joy Johnson

This book was everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dr. Love give a thorough breakdown of what it means to truly embody education. I will be using this as a recommended reading for this I have through pleasure of working with.

I heard the Call to Action

This book has so much in it, personal narrative, national narrative and strong reminders of the importance of intersectionality. I am grateful for hearing it and the call to action resonates deeply with me. I highly recommend this text to all teachers

Wow

Worth reading and receiving. allow your mind and thoughts to be transfigured and imploded by way of reflection and empathy.

A book for every human

Amazing writing and story telling. Everyone should read this. Regardless of your color or creed, this is a book for all human beings.

Right on!

Love encourages readers to come out of survival mode and enjoy life, but makes it clear that this can only happen when we understand what life is to us...Black people in Americs.

Highly recommend this book

Thank you for this book! I learned new things about racism, and understood better the system of oppression many of our schools are still immersed on. I did not know about the educational survival complex but it makes a lot of sense of what my observations have been when navigating the school system as an immigrant woman of color! Love love love this book!

Good Book But No Clear Takeaway

I think the author presented some interesting points that are not often discussed. For example, how Brown vs. Board of Education might have created an adverse effect of its intent. The ruling was supposed to make public schools equitable but now we have a situation where schools allow for integration but socioeconomic status determines the resources provided. That has negatively impacted schools in lower income communities. Ms. Love argues that before the 1954 ruling, schools were segregated but they were equal. This is one of many examples she brought up that was thought provoking. That said, it was unclear what the author’s intent was from the book. It appeared to be solely focused on how the black community and minorities have been disenfranchised by American institutions in the guise of “whiteness.” I was disappointed she didn’t offer any tangible solutions on the path forward and so status quo is maintained.

Insightful

A must read for EVERYONE who works with Black and Brown children. It doesn’t provide strategies, but insights and perspectives . I will read again.