We Want to Do More Than Survive

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.

The below discussion questions were written by shea martin.

Book club questions for We Want to Do More Than Survive by Bettina Love

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

How would differentiate education that focuses on survival from that that focuses on freedom?

Love critiques Teach for America and other short residency programs in under resourced schools. What do you think about this critique, especially since many members of the equity movement have participated in the program?

Love talks about her life, background, and struggles in school. How familiar are you with the stories of our students and their families? What helps or prohibits you from this closeness with students and families?

How do white rage and anti-blackness manifest in your school and/or community? Historically? Currently?

What has been your own experience with character education? How has it shown up in your work/educational experience?

How do your school’s core values and/or rules align with the traditional character education of which Love writes? How is it different?

How does trauma impact or show up in your work in schools? What supports do you have in place to sustain yourself?

Check out this sample “Character Growth Card.” What is beneficial about this card for students? What might be detrimental? How might you reenvision this card in order to acknowledge the systemic stressors faced by students?

How do your faculty work as a village to protect students’ potential? What is required from staff members to do so? What resources might you need to do so effectively?

How does our mission of preparing each student for college aim to disrupt oppressive structures in society? How does it uphold oppressive structures in society?

How does Love’s idolization of Beacon Hill compare with your knowledge and experiences in Boston? How does it compare with Boston’s history of bussing and racism?

Consider researching and exploring a person, group, or movement Love discusses in her section “The Work” (104 - 115). What strikes you about this movement and/or person? How does the community in which they exist respond?

White educators: Think about the difference between being an ally vs. coconspirator. Where do you fall based on your actions in our school and community?

We Want to Do More Than Survive Book Club Questions PDF

Click here for a printable PDF of the We Want to Do More Than Survive discussion questions

The above discussion questions were written by shea martin.