We Want To Do More Than Survive (adult nonfiction)

     "This book is about mattering, surviving, resisting, thriving, healing, imagining, freedom, love, and joy: all elements of abolitionist work and teaching. Abolitionist teaching is the practice of working in solidarity with communities of color while drawing on the imagination, creativity, refusal, (re)membering, visionary thinking, healing, rebellious spirit, boldness, determination, and subversiveness of abolitionists to eradicate injustice in and outside of schools."

     No doubt about it. Bettina L. Love's We Want To Do More Than Survive is a scathing indictment of the racist way children of color are educated in America. She calls what they must endure being educated to merely survive when they deserve so much more. The fact that education is funded mostly by property taxes gives them so much fewer resources than white peers. The intersectional challenges of their lives are ignored. Discipline wise they're treated much more harshly. You know--that school to prison pipeline. 

     And educational "reforms"--No Child Left Behind, charter schools--often as racist as the institutions they're supposedly reforming, can never be enough. Children of color deserve welcoming, valuing, affirming schools in which they matter immensely. They deserve schools in which they're helped to handle the challenges of life with dignity and compassion. Schools in which their creativity, imagination, determination, and, yes, rebelliousness are nurtured and they're part of a community that doesn't stop at the school gates.

     In a direct and compelling narrative that blends research and history with her candid life experience Love tells us what's gone wrong and what needs to happen to transform education from survival to abolitionist. It's a must read for all who work in schools, plan to work in schools, or care about the damage they're inflicting on children of color. 

On a purrrsonal note, sometime tomorrow I have to cut ✂️ out 180 paper ❤️ s. The UMaine blood drive is Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm of course in charge of canteen. While people wait they'll be able to make Valentines cards. 

A great big shout out goes out to all who will participate. 

Jules Hathaway 

     

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