In Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal, bestselling author Dr. Bettina L. Love lays bare the impact of 40 years of racist public school policy—from the Reagan-era War on Drugs to zero-tolerance charter schools to the book bans of today—on generations of Black lives.
In this blistering account—out Sept. 12 from St. Martin's Press—Love (We Want to Do More Than Survive) examines four decades of educational "reform" through the lens of the people who lived it. Punished for Dreaming documents the devastating impact of school reform, economic gain, and racist ideology on 25 Black Americans—and suggests a path forward for repair, reparations, and transformation for all children.
This newsletter was produced in partnership with St. Martin’s Press.
Fighting Educational Injustice: Close-Up on Bettina L. Love
In Dr. Bettina L. Love’s Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal, she examines the abuses inflicted on children by the Reagan-era War on Drugs.
Love addresses how biased rhetoric and discriminatory educational reforms worked in tandem with the drug war to target Black students. Through firsthand accounts of Black individuals, the author and activist puts a human face on racist, government-sanctioned policy, revealing its long-term impact on generations of Black lives.
PW caught up with Love to talk about Punished for Dreaming, the 25 real-life people she writes about, the Abolitionist Teaching Network, and why she's hopeful for the future.
What led you to write this particular book at this particular time?
Forty years ago, this April, in 1983, this country manufactured an education crisis. It told the world that American children were failing, and kids who looked like me were the cause of a “rising tide of mediocrity” that threatened the future of the nation. That 35-page report, “A Nation at Risk,” was released a year after President Ronald Reagan declared a War on Drugs, which was a War on Black People. The War on Drugs and “A Nation at Risk” worked in concert to put educational targets on the backs of Black children through harmful and violent education reforms. I was born in 1979. These reforms took aim at my generation, the Hip Hop generation. I am also part of the post-civil rights generation; we were told that we would reap the educational benefits from the sacrifices of our parents and grandparents who defied vicious mobs to integrate schools. When I understood that education failed to deliver on these promises, I became curious about the educational lives of my generation. I think this book is particularly important right now because it lays bare the history of the last 40 years of education reform that forms the foundation for the current manufactured education crisis...."
Read the Full Interview
Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal
In the tradition of Michelle Alexander, Punished for Dreaming is an unflinching reckoning with the impact of 40 years of racist public school policy on generations of Black lives.
Dr. Bettina L. Love argues forcefully that Ronald Reagan’s presidency ushered in a War on Black Children, pathologizing and penalizing them in concert with the War on Drugs. New policies punished schools with policing, closure, and loss of funding in the name of reform, as white-savior, egalitarian efforts increasingly allowed private interests to infiltrate the system. These changes implicated children of color, and Black children in particular, as low performing, making it all too easy to turn a blind eye to their disproportionate conviction and incarceration.
Learn MoreRidiculous Magic: PW Talks with Stacey Lee
In this exclusive video, Dr. Bettina L. Love gives readers a closer look at Punished for Dreaming, and discusses her goals for the book, educational politics, racial justice, and a whole lot more.
Op-Ed: Why Teachers Are Scared
Public school teachers are not just frustrated with the current state of education, they are scared. Scared of a mass shooting at their school. Scared of getting sick from Covid-19. Scared of low wages and rising inflation. Scared of how the stress of teaching is impacting their overall health. Scared of being fired for teaching Black history, which is American history, or teaching that queer people exist and that their lives matter.
Read the Full Op-EdWin a Copy of Punished for Dreaming
Enter for your chance to win an advance reader copy of Punished for Dreaming, the new book from Dr. Bettina L. Love, courtesy of St. Martin's Press.
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About Bettina L. Love
Dr. Bettina L. Love is an award-winning author and the William F. Russell Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University.Her writing, research, teaching, and educational advocacy work meet at the intersection of disrupting education reform and strengthening public education through abolitionist teaching, anti-racism, Black joy, and educational reparations.
Preorder her new book Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal wherever books are sold.
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