Dismantling White Supremacy Book Discussion
As part of my work at Montessori For All, I help facilitate a group of public Montessori leaders. We commit to figuring out how to fully implement Montessori in a way that ensures equitable outcomes for all children. Therefore, dismantling white supremacy is absolutely part of our work. One of the participants, the amazing Jacqui Miller from Stonebrook Montessori, had the idea to do a bookclub. As a result, she recommended that we focus on Bettina Love’s book entitled, We Want to Do More Than Survive. Additionally, the subtitle is Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom.
Description of the Book
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.
Beacon Press
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.
Join Us for the Discussion About Dismantling White Supremacy
Our monthly calls are usually just for public Montessori leaders. However, we are opening up this one to the wider world to encourage others to read this amazing book. We want to keep deepening the conversation about how to dismantle white supremacy. Therefore, you’re welcome to join us if you want!
Friday, May 3 | 11am-12pm ET | RSVP to hello@montessoriforall.org for login details