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A review by sarahscott917
Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from My Daughter's School by Courtney E. Martin
2.0
Sometimes the worst books are the best ones to discuss. This wasn’t the worst book I’ve read, but it’s one that I’d love to discuss because I have some thoughts.
Wayyyyy too many chapters. 123 to be exact. Was it cool that she was in a yoga class with Angela Davis? Sure, but it didn’t need to be mentioned. I didn’t need to hear so much about the pushback regarding the merging of two schools, neither of which her kid attended. I also didn’t need the story about the grandparent having a medical incident on the playground. This book could have done with some serious editing.
I listened to the audiobook. While I appreciated that she had a Black woman act as her sensitivity reader, it was hard to understand when problematic statements were pointed out since the author read those herself. It was also hard to understand if the author learned anything from the feedback.
There were soooo many examples of white saviorism, and the author self-reflected on a few but that didn’t slow her down from continually treating one Black dad like a charity chase instead of like a peer and fellow parent. She also had a weird relationship with one of her daughter’s teachers. It felt like she hounded her even after the teacher left the school. Then the set up of Blair being her polar opposite as a pushy vvhite mom to the author’s supposedly cool vvhite mom…ick.
The parts I liked were the parts where I learned that school integration peaked in the 80s and school is now more segregated than it was in the 60s. I also liked when she shared stories about how her daughter was making friends and learning at the school and when she said vvhite parents are welcome to send their kids to majority Black schools, but that the parents need to sit down, shut up and listen. Great advice that the author could have heeded more. There’s also a great chapter where she references an article written by Nikole Hannah-Jones, but when I looked up the article later, I realized most of what the author read was exactly what Hannah-Jones had written in the article. Since I listened to the audiobook, I’m not sure what was direct quote and what was paraphrased, but it felt like all she did was regurgitate a Black woman’s words.
Overall, I like the idea of the book, and while parts of her journey were super cringy, I definitely identified at times. Maybe that’s part of why I struggle with it. It definitely made me continue thinking about school choice, a topic that’s been on my mind for a few years now even though my kids aren’t school age yet. I know the benefits of immersing my kids in classrooms with kids from different races, different socio economic backgrounds, different abilities and where English is not the first language spoken at home. Having grown up in PWI, I have a better understanding now of what I missed then. I love that I found a school system whose demographics include 30% white, 32% Black, 14% Hispanic, 14% Asian, 22% ESL and 72% low income. It’s sad that so many of the surrounding, sought after school systems are anywhere from 75 to 88% white.
Wayyyyy too many chapters. 123 to be exact. Was it cool that she was in a yoga class with Angela Davis? Sure, but it didn’t need to be mentioned. I didn’t need to hear so much about the pushback regarding the merging of two schools, neither of which her kid attended. I also didn’t need the story about the grandparent having a medical incident on the playground. This book could have done with some serious editing.
I listened to the audiobook. While I appreciated that she had a Black woman act as her sensitivity reader, it was hard to understand when problematic statements were pointed out since the author read those herself. It was also hard to understand if the author learned anything from the feedback.
There were soooo many examples of white saviorism, and the author self-reflected on a few but that didn’t slow her down from continually treating one Black dad like a charity chase instead of like a peer and fellow parent. She also had a weird relationship with one of her daughter’s teachers. It felt like she hounded her even after the teacher left the school. Then the set up of Blair being her polar opposite as a pushy vvhite mom to the author’s supposedly cool vvhite mom…ick.
The parts I liked were the parts where I learned that school integration peaked in the 80s and school is now more segregated than it was in the 60s. I also liked when she shared stories about how her daughter was making friends and learning at the school and when she said vvhite parents are welcome to send their kids to majority Black schools, but that the parents need to sit down, shut up and listen. Great advice that the author could have heeded more. There’s also a great chapter where she references an article written by Nikole Hannah-Jones, but when I looked up the article later, I realized most of what the author read was exactly what Hannah-Jones had written in the article. Since I listened to the audiobook, I’m not sure what was direct quote and what was paraphrased, but it felt like all she did was regurgitate a Black woman’s words.
Overall, I like the idea of the book, and while parts of her journey were super cringy, I definitely identified at times. Maybe that’s part of why I struggle with it. It definitely made me continue thinking about school choice, a topic that’s been on my mind for a few years now even though my kids aren’t school age yet. I know the benefits of immersing my kids in classrooms with kids from different races, different socio economic backgrounds, different abilities and where English is not the first language spoken at home. Having grown up in PWI, I have a better understanding now of what I missed then. I love that I found a school system whose demographics include 30% white, 32% Black, 14% Hispanic, 14% Asian, 22% ESL and 72% low income. It’s sad that so many of the surrounding, sought after school systems are anywhere from 75 to 88% white.