We Want to

do More
Than Survive
By: Emma, Emily, Hannah, Batul
Author
The author of our book, is Bettina Love, a New York Times
bestseller. She is the William F. Russell Professor at
Teachers College, Columbia University. As co-founder of
the Abolitionist Teaching Network, Love, contributes to its
mission of nurturing and empowering teachers and parents
who are committed to fighting injustice with the
educational system. She is a very popular and powerful
public speaker on topics including, abolitionist teaching,
anti-racism, Hip Hop education, Black girlhood, queer youth,
educational reparations, and the use of art-based education
to foster youth civic engagement. Her philosophy includes
restoring humanity and Pershing educational freedom for
all children. She wants students to feel like they all matter
and to that she believes schools need to spend more time
and money into their students to make them feel this way.
Key Concepts
● Intersectionality: This is the complexities of an identity (like race, gender, sexual orientation, etc)
and how these social markers combine to invoke different levels discriminations and prejudice.
● Mattering: Benita Love refers to mattering as the relationships and sense of community that
students feel in their schools from activities and teachers. Love argues that often times students of
color do not feel like they matter- are important to their community. Mattering also means to
humanize people of color
● Survival Complex: Teaching students who live in poverty or of color to just survive, but not thrive.
Policies such as ‘No Child Left Behind’, disproportionately impact these students because they lack
resources to fulfill the requirements of the policy. Love argues that schools have the same
oppression as the US at large and are not a place for students to learn the skills they need at life.
● Abolitionist Teaching: This philosophy acknowledges that the education system in the US is
broken and needs to be rebuilt; on the basis of teaching civil responsibilities, educational freedom,
and restoring humanity.

Emma
 Connection to our class
Educational Movements Philosophers

This book reminded me about the In the book Bettina Love talks about
educational movement Brown Versus The Abolitionist thinking. Bell Hook related to
Board of education. In the book the author
abolitionist thinking in the historical sense,
talks about how black people have been
her work goes into depth on racism and
discriminated and how it affects the child’s
learning because of how they are being
sexism. She also talks about different kinds
treated. Just like how when the first few of power. Her work and values align with
black students were introduced to a all abolitionists who fought against slavery
white school. The children were aloud to be and oppressive systems.
there but they were laughed at and made
fun of because of how they looked and
there culture

Emily
 Our Book Club Discussions
● Batul; “Checking all the windows in the house to make sure they were locked before going to sleep” (63) This is significant because your race
shapes your environment. What religion and race you are all affect you social and economic status in the US. It isn’t right because these
factors shouldn’t be an issue for these topics.
● Emily: “ He told me… that i could talk to him” It relates to us and our world now because having teacher acknowledged the struggle of students
is important. Each child has their own struggles and issues, (race, sexuality, home life, ect) and its important that teachers offer help.
● Emma: “a study on holocaust survivors children showed found that their children had an increased likelihood of stress disorders” In a world of
characterizing learning and teaching, I think it’s important to address other factors. You cannot teach your students about character without
recognizing that their environment makes them act the way they do. Black Children who are taught character teaching are taught this to make
them more manageable, more white. Black children who are experiencing extreme poverty are under high amounts of toxic stress. These
students have impaired social skills and learning disabilities.
● Hannah: “ I haven’t really been feeling it. But I gotta keep pushin' “ This quote is taken slightly out of context, but it is significant because
teachers have to understand the struggles students face and support them. A past student of the author was explaining his feeling of despair
(he has a bad home life) and teachers have to support the students who are dealing with these issues. It would be really easy for this student
to give up, but through the support of the author (his teacher) he can keep pushing through, knowing that more will happen.
Additional questions:
What is black joy? This was our second book club,
What can teachers do to support children who are struggling? where we picked a quote talked
When students are struggling, what things can help motivate them? about it, and send further
questions
Hannah’s Teaching Philosophy Impact
My book was called, We Want to Do More Than Survive. In this book it talked about many important, and

sensitive topics. After reading this book, and discussing it in my book club, I have realized a few things. Not every

student is the same. This can mean many different things. It can mean a students’ academic ability, social skills,

or even family life. I have to learn about my students and them personally to help them be successful in my class.

Another thing I learned is different students need different types of teaching. I learned that I can’t just stick to

one way of doing or saying something. Everyone’s brains work differently and I need to change my teaching style

depending on the student. The last thing I learned is that different family life affects students. A student can be

going through a lot at home that will be affecting their school life and learning. I as a teacher have to realize this

and help my students in any way possible.

Emma’s Teaching philosophy impact
Love brings up the point of intersectionality, and this had me me think
about how I am going to treat my future students. Love calls for teachers
to better understand the identity of their students and the role they play
in that student’s life. Having multiple layers of identifiers plays a role in
how society treats you. It’s important to understand your students
identity and support them in anyway you can. While it may seem like its
not a teachers job to offer emotional support to students, often times
learning cannot take place unless a student has help with the issues of
their life.
Batul’s Teaching Philosophy Impact
The books “We have to do More than Just Survive has taught me the
importance of putting the color of someone’s skin,how someone looks, their
problems at home, and how they appear besides and learning how a student
really thinks. The teacher in this book was constantly moving schools and
learned about all her students backgrounds and the problems they faced
because of their skin color and their problems at home. This helped me
come up with the philosophy that as much as we don’t want the ccolor of our
skin or where we came from to impact us, there is always going to be a group
of people who separate themselves Becasue they don’t want to be associated
with diffrent races. I want to teach my students from a young age that
instead of looking at the way someone looks, we look at the way they think,
the way they learn, and their lifestyle Becasue that’s what makes a person
who they really are. Without a solid environment, the learning environment
will never be where I want it to be at.
Emily’s Teaching Philosophy Impact
My book club chose the book We Want To Do More Than Survive by Bettina L. Love. The author talked
about how important it is to have a good role model that the student can identify with in the classroom.
Bettina Love identified with one of her teachers because of the cultural backgrounds that they shared.
She felt that their bond was something that made her a better student. I have experienced this same
concept at Elk Grove High School with many different teachers because of meaningful conversations I
have had with them. Whetherther it be about my concert T-shirts or how me and a teacher share a love
for pottery, or even about how our families are alike. I agree that a strong student teacher relationship
is essential for the student to be comfortable in the class.
 Questions
1. What is abolitionist teaching?

2. What philosopher impacted Loves approach to

abolitionists teaching?

3. What is mattering?