This was quite triggering for early in the narration--I was not ready. Given the title I knew it was going to be heavy. Overall, I love how Dr. Love can be a testament to resilience and a support system can benefit in assisting in healing trauma. Sadly these stories are all the prevalent and so many voices of these children never gets told and that trauma never is acknowledged or heal. I continue to meet too many #AdultChildren navigating ADULTING with no tools nor answers to the whys... I so glad this human persevered to share these experiences to educate and empower BIPOC COMMUNITIES. #NetGalley

A sweeping, ambitious discussion of the consequences of the last forty years of education reform, this book made me want to learn more about our education history from a Black perspective.

Thank you to Macmillan audio and Netgally for the e-Audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Bettina L. Love takes a broad sweep of the last forty years of education, looking at the consequences of Ronald Reagan's administration, SROs in schools, philanthropic and entrepreneurial failures, and so much more, interspersed with interviews, personal anecdotes and discussions of contemporary repercussions. I walked away from this book eager to dig deeper into each topic. Love makes a compelling argument for reparations in education, but I do believe the book would be strengthened by narrowing its scope, or with some restructuring. Often, Love takes one topic (such as police in schools) and examines it over forty years leading up to the present, and then we time travel back forty years for the next topic. By working our way historically from forty years back to the present and covering each topic in its historical context before moving forward in time, I believe the argument might have had more momentum.

I'm still so thankful to have read this book and for all of Love's scholarship. I am excited to dive deeper into abolitionist writings and American education history.

As a Floridian living in a modern-day Twilight Zone, I want to purchase this book for my schools superintendent and school board. What I appreciate about Punished for Dreaming is Bettina Love doesn’t just focus on certain pieces of history or cherry picked facts, her holistic approach to laying out the history WITH RECEIPTS should be required reading in every high school across the country.

This is thoroughly researched, expertly laid out and will absolutely rip your heart out and make you cry. The frustration and aggravation and anger I felt while reading this is nothing compared to what our black and brown students experience and we, as a country, has to do better.

I also loved that it was narrated by the author.

Thank you for this gifted ALC!

After 250 years of enslavement, 90 years of Jim Crow, 60 years of the separate-but-equal doctrine, 35 years of housing discrimination, and 40 years of education reform of deliberately crafted policies to punish Black people for believing in and fighting for their right to quality public education, racism has finally been acknowledged as a public health crisis.

In Punished for Dreaming, Love argues that Reagan’s presidency ushered in a new type of American Black bondage: the War on Black Children, in which his war on drugs worked in concert with school reform to pathologize and penalize Black children under school safety policies. Punished for Dreaming shows, too, how benevolent school policies and practices make carcerality an inevitability for Black students.

In its twelve chapters, Punished for Dreaming tells the story of how Love’s own family was impacted by Brown and how the court decision sparked the creation of a public school system that differed from the era of de jure segregation but was just as racist. The aim of this book is to understand how a thirty-six page educational report manufactured an educational crisis of catastrophic proportions that destroyed generations of Black families.

With Punished for Dreaming, Love seeks to have us embrace educational reparations and start the path toward repairing, with the goal of ultimately transforming our education system. Punished for Dreaming offers a road map for healing and transformation through the arduous and intensely emotional work of reparations. Her work stands as a call of duty to start the conversation surrounding educational reparations and move us closer to investing in Black education for America’s future. This book stands as a pathway forward toward the long road of repair, healing, and transformation. Ending reform and fighting for educational rapartions is what can deliver genuine freedom for all children.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the copy of this book.

WOW - I lovvvvve a book narrated by the author, and this one really hit home for me. I am from Rochester, NY, which Bettina uses for many of her examples, and I am so glad I read this. I love when history is shared, but then practical applications are shared to move forward. Absolutely excellent!

Appreciated the history of what has gotten to us to where we are today with racial divides in education. These divides are not only with students, also with educators. Love asks for change without being preachy or one sided. VERDICT- A key text for anyone wanting to understand education and make our schools better for all. A necessary book for anyone in educational leadership.

Thank you to the publisher for my review copy of Punished for Dreaming!

In Punished for Dreaming, Bettina L. Love compiles decades of history and data on the effect of education reform on Black students.

If you are an educator who has been involved in social justice work and research, much of this information will not be new to you, nor will the stories be something you haven’t heard. However, I think it is extremely helpful to have all of this research compiled into one book, along with real world examples. There are people who work in education who need statistics and data in order to have their opinions swayed, and others who will be more interested in what systemic racism can look like to individuals.

It can be difficult to learn about racism, and it can feel very uncomfortable to walk away feeling as though you cannot solve a problem that is causing devastating harm. The case for authentic reparations has been made many times, but it is not something the average teacher or citizen may know how to help work towards, even if they did agree with Love. Many educators may be used to the curriculum sales pitch version of problem and solution, and wish there were easy steps that they could take in their classroom in order to fix the situation. Unfortunately, the issues raised in this book are systemic and put upon public schools by the government, so it stands to reason that the government needs to be involved in the solution.

This audiobook is beautifully narrated by Karen Chilton, with an introduction read by the author. If you like listening to nonfiction audiobooks or podcasts, this is an excellent way to experience Punished for Dreaming. I have a little bit of trouble listening to a book as data driven as this one is on audio, so I was glad to have the ebook as well.

Again, thank you to the publisher for my review copy. I hope this book can usher in a new wave of reform that works towards creating schools that serve all students, where education can be a joyful experience, and schools are given the resources needed to serve their students.

""I know you didn't do it, and I didn't do it either, but I am responsible for it because I am a man and a citizen of this country and you are responsible for it, too, for the very same reason: as long as my children face the future they face, and come to the ruin that they come to, your children are very greatly in danger too." - James Baldwin, 1964

Baldwin warned us all, but white rage rarely listens and it never comprehends. "

I did not like this book. This book is ridiculously depressing. But this book is absolutely 100% necessary, and it is full of the truth our society needs to hear. Bettina L. Love is absolutely unapologetic in her hatred of white supremacy and all the harms it causes, and in her love for Black love, joy, and success.

This book goes into how school reforms (No child left behind, school choice, etc.) are stemmed in racism and white supremacy, and how many of the ways we try to help Black children just results in more harm. She gives actual solutions to these issues, and Love is clearly extremely knowledgeable in this field. I would recommend anyone who is at all connected to education read this book. There may be things in it that are hard to hear, but they are necessary.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for this audio ARC in exchange for an honest review!

"I want to live in a world where Black children do not have to be twice as good to get half of what White people have." Ms. Love knocks it out of the park again. Here own voice as narrator makes it that much more powerful.I would recommend to any teacher or school official, especially if you teach Black or Brown students. These was so much history that I was not aware of. ARC from NetGalley

I can't really overstate how important the information in this book is, synthesized in precisely the way Dr. Bettina L. Love presented it. It explained much of what I witnessed as an elementary and middle school student in the 1980's. There were so many buzzwords in the educational realm of my childhood that were so clearly meant to separate and ultimately cause harm to Black students and educators in this country. This book is so well constructed and rooted in both information and call to action. The impact of so-called reform following the 1983 report "A Nation at Risk" is ongoing and cannot be undone without the knowledge of what has come in its wake and the effort of us all to demand real change and reparations.

Punished for Dreaming is an eye-opening, phenomenal book about the terrible consequences of racist school reform policies in the US since the 1980s. It is in the same vein as The New Jim Crow, Caste, and The Sum Of Us.

Over the last 40 odd years, so many policies have been put into place that have hurt the lives of black and brown children. From the War on Drugs, harsh carceral policies, increased focus on standardized testing, philanthropic overreach, and privatization of schools for profit.

I was largely unaware of the consequences of Brown vs. the Board of Education, which forced the integration of schools in the 1960s. Though this is presented as an overwhelmingly positive ruling, 38,000 black teachers lost their jobs because of how the policies were implemented.

Though Punished for Dreaming spells out myriad injustices, it is hopeful and inspiring. Improving education for black and brown children will improve it for all children. Everyone should read this book.

I listened to the audiobook, which was perfectly narrated by Karen Chilton, with an introduction read by the author.

Thank you, NetGalley, and the publishers for providing this ebook and audiobook ARC. All thoughts are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this audiobook to review. I really enjoyed this book (which I think is weird to say based on the subject matter,) but also appreciated it and feel like it taught me a lot. It definitely helped me to recognize some of my own privileges and biases, and allowed me to see the public and charter school systems from a different point of view. I hope that what I learned can help me as a support staff member in the preschool setting that I work in.

This book was a very powerful read. It really outlined all the many ways our education system has not only failed black children but the people and drive behind it all. The author discusses many administrations interference with the education system but also the corporations and wealthy white men bankrolling these efforts. Even if some may enter into the idea of reform with the intention of helping, hubris and ego and bias can turn these attempts into more harm than good. There are way too many people involved with structuring our education system that are not educators or trained in any way to undertake this task and it makes me fear for our future. If more people read this book, I'm hoping they will be more aware and willing to truly listen to ways that can actually fix our many problems. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this audiobook. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Bettina Love’s Punished For Dreaming investigates the educational inequality that has been crucial to preserving a Black underclass. Through historical research, interviews with Black people traumatized by “educational white rage,” and groundbreaking harm analysis, Love aims to prove that 40 years of educational reform have not only failed to provide good education to Black children, but have actually been part of a systematic attempt to prevent Black people from accessing adequate schooling,

I am rounding this review up to 4 stars to recognize the importance of its central topic: how educational reforms have irrevocably hurt Black children; who, after 13 years in an educational system meant to fail them, turn into traumatized, unfairly undereducated, and yet resilient Black adults. She makes very compelling arguments, but at points I felt like she was really preaching to the choir. I believed her because I agree with her worldview, not necessarily because of the strength of her citations. However, the last section about educational reparations I felt had particularly compelling data and would sway anyone with a working brain, regardless of their worldview! I also felt the sections where she interviewed (former) students, teachers, and professionals about how educational reform had negatively impacted their schooling and lives was particularly strong, and really demonstrated the emotional harm caused by the white “super-predator” reformers. We can talk til the cows come home about test scores and suspension rates and college matriculation, but it’s impossible to deny a person sitting in front of you, telling you about their pain. Overall, 4 unaccredited charter schools out of 5.

Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal (Hardcover)
by Bettina L. Love
An honest and detailed look at the historic and political sphere of education. The implementation of many policies of educational reform is very detrimental to the Black and brown students it was to support. I see these departmental policies as causing problems for all students. Many of the personal stories in the book shows how these policies affect students. Today I see similar stories and results in schools. Ms. Love spends a majority of the book showing how defunding of public schools, racial segregation, divestment, and implementations of standardization testing and policies that create a "carceral" inevitability of schooling. Causing many of the concepts that promoted social injustice and financial benefit to organizations from publishing, to the supremacy of white politicians and wealthy companies.
This is an alarming book in its presentation, but may be something needed to be heard by the public. The Idea that technology is the only solution for students is detrimental to rural and impoverished areas. This book shows a multicultural look at education reform and it affects.
the reader did a great job bring the story to the listener. Her vocal performance shows the personal nature of the stories, and how the events affected the author.

I always feel like I get it because I actively do the work and my siblings, nieces, nephews, and cousins, are POC. But no I can't get it because I don't have to live it. I love them and I do the work for them and always will -but I do not get it.
I think everyone needs to pick this up and read it. All of my white lady friends need to read this. The narrator was perfect and every word in this book is pointed. We need it.
If I could teach a course on race this would be required reading.
I will read this again as I work to get a seat on the local school board. We need to fix so many things. This should not happen, should not have ever happened, and we need to make sure it stops happening.
These kids deserve better. They deserve the best.