"I Love Learning; I Hate School"

Even though a lot of what I read in "I Love Learning" were things I kind of knew, it struck a very deep chord in me. Here's this professor who's been teaching for years who seems to finally get the plight of the young college student, or of any student, who is sick of school and sick of the crooked system. Blum is a professor I wish I had, and I can only hope that other educators adopt her way of thinking.

While "I Love Learning; I Hate School" isn't really a how-to guide, it certainly gives a lot of great insight to professors who still think college is like the way it was a few decades ago (I don't mean it in a demeaning way; they likely attended college with other students who love academics). Also, if you're even mildly interested in the anthropology of education, I'd recommend reading this book.

However, a word of warning: Blum's writing style isn't the most fluid. She tends to open new sections with bright, fresh writing, then gets into the nitty gritty of the topic. I figure it's the nature of the book (it is about academics, after all), so I don't necessarily fault it overall.

In short, I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars. The writing is okay and the ideas presented aren't completely new, but the author does some very solid research and shares her personal experiences, both of which were important in solidifying her ideas (with empirical and emotional requirements fulfilled).

5★

“I believe the institution of school has outlived its usefulness. It rarely succeeds. There is chaos in discussing its aims, implementation, measures. As a system of educating, its returns on genuine learning are shameful. As a signaling game and credential competition, it is incredibly wasteful. As a way of trying to squeeze all individuals into a tight mold, it is abusive and creates suffering. This system began, basically, with the Common School movement. We can’t significantly improve a conceptually flawed system; we can only replace it.”

This is a well-researched, interesting, and readable collection of more information than you ever thought was available regarding complaints about “school” from teachers, students, and the public, mainly in the US. There are many personal stories and anecdotes that I enjoyed and which should keep readers engaged. The author recognizes the dilemma facing those pushing for change.

“There are enormous corporate and interest-group elements that would challenge any dismantling of the half-trillion-dollar system.”

And one size certainly won’t fit all. “Students growing up in a two-professional household with a taste for classical music and organic food will not be the same as adolescents raising their younger siblings while Mom is in jail. If these last get a chance to go to college, they will have a different perspective on the whole experience.”

She is refreshingly honest about her early attitude to learning and admits she was comfortable in the traditional school environment. But over the last many years of teaching, she’s come to realize how unnatural this setting is for many students who would probably benefit from other methods, including free, non-institutional resources like the TED talks and MOOCs—massive open online courses.

As Blum points out, “Most people learn most of what they know without direct instruction. Teachers—and sometimes teaching—are often optional. Babies learn to walk and talk. We are born to learn—but how?”

Little kids watch big kids surf, ask for tips, and then have a go themselves. And they’ll do it all day long. College is full of kids who learn all kinds of things in their extra-curricular activities, and they love it.

I have a term I use often—“academic airheads”—which is for those people who can quote the great philosophers or name-that-tune at classical concerts (and probably got good grades in school). But if I’m ever stranded on a desert island, I sure hope it’s with the ‘real’ people of the world who know how to fix a busted boat or catch fish.

Not everyone is suited to the classroom. There are countless YouTube how-to videos for people who don’t want to darken the door of a classroom but who just want learn things (like how to fix a busted boat).

Blum quotes and references many studies and papers, the upshot of which is that we have unwittingly developed a system that children and adolescents have learned to ‘game’ so they can appear to be learning in class while just warming their chairs. Then, with some quick memory work and before they forget it, they manage to regurgitate enough of the right amount of necessary information in papers and exams to get good grades.

And it’s all about the grades. Grades to keep moving up through the system. No matter if you really understand anything. Just so it looks good on paper and the right prep school will accept you and then the right Ivy League College will accept you and then the right Wall Street firm will head-hunt you and then you can live happily ever after – possibly never learning much of any great use in your career at all.

Grades are the reward for ticking the right boxes, but many studies show that rewards are counter-productive.

“Edward Deci conducted a study with a result so amazing that nobody believed it. College students were divided into two groups. All were given a challenging puzzle to work on, but half earned money for solving it. Researchers left the room and observed the students. The ones who had been paid showed less interest in the puzzle than the other group. This finding has been replicated again and again and again.”

Blum says at the outset that this is not a manual, but she does give some useful suggestions.

She’d like a two year break after high school to let students mature. A Gap Year is popular in some cultures, but she advocates two.

“If I could make only one change to conventional schooling, it would be to stop giving grades . . . I have begun to give my students, in smaller classes, rubrics without grades. I tell them that if this causes too much anxiety, I’ll be happy to tell them what grade the rubric would translate to. (Nobody has requested this, so far.)”

Referring to trees that grow crooked in bad times, Blum says we must find better ways to engage students and foster real learning.

“Many of our students are like those twisted trunks. They seek fulfilment and passion and meaning. Nourishment. If they cannot get it from the thin pabulum of our cognitive curriculum, they will look for it in beer pong and football chants and fast food work and all those places outside our classrooms.”

Like YouTube.

If you have any interest in education and how we might fix it, this is a great resource. Good luck!

Enormous thanks to NetGalley and Cornell University Press for providing me with a pre-publication digital copy. I apologize if any of the quotations are changed before publication, but she said it better than I could.

An examination of the American school system and how students and teachers succeed in spite of it! A must read for students, educators, and anyone interested in the future of education.

I recognize myself in these pages, and my children. Loving learning, but sometimes bored by school because of how schools deliver that learning. It is so hard for education (at all levels -- elementary through post-graduate) to be meaningful to all students, set up as it is. Luckily, I teach gifted enrichment, so the students in my classes are mostly there because they are excited, but certainly there are some who attend only because their parents insist on it, and they would rather be doing something else or doing it differently. Students can read at a much higher level if it is something that they are INTERESTED in; unfortunately, not all subjects are interesting to all students as they are currently taught.

Many students find their time at college or university to be a very difficult, dissatisfying experience, something they endure and go through the motions with as a means to an end. Does it need to be like this?

The author, a professor of anthropology, had had enough and decided to dig deeper into the subject. For a long time she had been frustrated with her students’ performance and came to the conclusion that there is a concerning mismatch between the goals of the university and the needs of students. This research is clearly based on U.S. educational establishment experiences, although the U.S. system is far from unique to that country and thus many takeaway points can be relevant in other countries. This book mixes up the methodology of learning with the author’s own research into the problems that appear extant. It doesn’t make for pleasant reading; the subject that is, the book does a good job at delivering the “bad news”.

There is hope, says the author, who analyses what is going wrong and suggests how to change things to make classroom learning more relevant and engaging to modern-day needs. That’s the theory. Implementing it may be the greater challenge and first the system needs to accept and understand that the system itself might need to change. The system can be sapping the intellectual curiosity of students rather than encouraging them.

This book is not itself a direct roadmap for possible change. A lot needs to be considered and possibly implemented. Yet the author plants the seeds for change in the reader’s mind, gives clear reasoning why change may be necessary and details what the problems are perceived to be. One person cannot change the world, yet they can be part of the catalyst that may inspire the change process.

If you think the system is perfect, you have nothing to lose by reading this book since you are convinced your system is perfect and thus can easily debunk the book’s contents on logical grounds. However, for the rest, whether you are clearly seized on the idea for change from the get-go or just accept that something may be possibly improved upon, this book can give you a different perspective and possibly a lot more besides.

A highly recommendable, crucial read for many, and an engaging, thought-provoking read for the rest of us.

I Love Learning; I Hate School, written by Susan D. Blum and published by Cornell University Press. ISBN 9781501700217. YYYYY