Schoolishness

I went into *Schoolishness* expecting another dry academic takedown of education, so I was pleasantly surprised when Blum’s voice—sharp, witty, and utterly unapologetic—pulled me into her world from the first chapter. The dual narration works beautifully here: Blum’s own delivery lends an intimate, almost conspiratorial tone to her arguments, while Kurtz’s measured cadence grounds the more radical ideas in digestible chunks. That said, the pacing stumbles slightly in the middle acts, where Blum’s anthropological tangents (fascinating as they are) risk losing listeners on tangents about medieval scribes or 19th-century boarding schools. Still, the production team deserves credit for keeping the audio crisp and engaging, with just enough silence between sections to let ideas sink in without losing momentum. My biggest critique? Blum’s solutions lean a little too heavily on anecdotal evidence from privileged educational experiments (like Sudbury schools), which left me wanting more data on how her ideas could scale in underfunded or overcrowded systems. That said, the book’s strengths far outweigh its flaws: by the final chapter, I found myself scribbling notes in the margins about how to apply her critiques to my own life, not just the classroom. A provocative, necessary listen for anyone who’s ever rolled their eyes at “participation points.”