Susan D. Blum's "Schoolishness"

Susan D. Blum is Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. She is the author of I Love Learning; I Hate School and My Word!, as well as the editor of Ungrading.

Blum applied the "Page 99 Test" to her new book, Schoolishness: Alienated Education and the Quest for Authentic, Joyful Learning, and reported the following:

On page 99 I’m wrapping up a chapter called “Pedagogy and Pedagogizing: From Direct Instruction to Independent Learning,” which is the first chapter of the core section of the book, “Key Elements of Schoolishness, with Some Less-Schoolish Variations.” Each of the ten chapters in this central section of the book takes a familiar dimension of school—in this case the need for teachers and teaching—and challenges it on the basis of principles and evidence. Then each chapter, like this one, provides examples of alternative approaches.

I love this idea of testing a random page and seeing if the book as a whole is represented there. It is reminiscent to me of the notion of a hologram, being able to reconstruct something three-dimensional from wave forms. In fact, as a writer, I should apply this test myself! In a book of this length and complexity, the challenge has always been to maintain the through-line, and I’m shocked to see that it is clear on page 99! Because the whole book is about a contrast between schoolish, alienated, and nonschoolish, authentic, ways of learning. And on this page, my commitment to anthropological reports about learning “in the wild,” outside school, shines through, as I begin to talk about the “chore curriculum,” children learning to walk, learning by doing, learning through trial and error, and all the ways humans learn when they are committed, and when it matters. This contrasts really clearly with the ways schools foster dependence and alienated impressions of learning based on some external force’s determination of what students should learn. This is really the core idea of the book! Who knew it would be laid out on page 99?

I have been puzzling over the ways school doesn’t work, either in terms of learning or wellbeing, for so many students, for nearly twenty years. As an anthropologist, I try to observe how things actually are, not only how official accounts say they should be. But as a former student who thrived in school, I didn’t understand why it didn’t work for so many others. It has taken me writing this book, along with the first two in this trilogy, to feel that I have figured it out, to some extent. I don’t have all the answers, but I have a lot of questions, and I’ve answered some of them here.

Visit Susan D. Blum's website.

--Marshal Zeringue