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We should take very seriously the critique of higher education offered by Susan Blum; the book is excellent, and I highly recommend it. Blum does the profession a service by drawing our attention to the ways in which traditional educational structures put barriers in the way of our students and their learning. She has a powerful command of educational history and theory, and her insights and anecdotes rang true to me throughout the book. -Chronicle of Higher Education As I read 'I Love Learning; I Hate School,' I sprained my neck from nodding in vigorous agreement. The book casts an anthropological lens on education in general and higher education in particular, and the result is a catalog of many of the things that I believe ail us when it comes to teaching and learning. -John Warner, Inside Higher Ed Susan D. Blum wrote this vitally important book to understand the mismatch between learning, 'which students may love,' and schooling, 'which many students hate.' While so much of school and college is familiar to many of us, Blum uses anthropology's emphasis on holism and comparison to make it strange and interesting again. Extending beyond college campuses to consider all of mass schooling, 'I Love Learning; I Hate School'points out how many of the practices that are commonplace in today's colleges and schools actually have a corrosive effect on student interest and engagement. It denaturalizes Western schooling to reveal its many 'oddities,' including age segregation, decontextualized learning, an emphasis on grades, and the production of failure. Blum draws on research from anthropology, cognitive science, affective neuroscience, child psychology, and human development, as well as her own original research and classroom experimentation, to show how these practices are misaligned with 'the way humans are' and actually learn. Looking across cultural space and historical time, she examines the variety of ways humans have engaged in our primary adaptive advantage: learning. Observing that teaching itself is 'very rare in the ethnographic record,' Blum finds that people tend to learn in multimodal ways, when they have a need or desire to learn, by doing, by showing others, by being active, through observation, through play, through guided participation, and when there are genuine consequences. Importantly, motivation for learning is powerfully related to perceived relevance, sociality, and affective experience. All of this helps to explain, for example, why so many students today are more engaged with extracurricular activities than their academic work: because these activities are more tightly aligned with key human learning inclinations. 'I Love Learning; I Hate School' is a must-read for all who care about educational improvement and renewal. Moving beyond critique, Blum shows a way forward with practical ideas instructors at all levels can use to make their classrooms less school-like, and in Blum's words, more 'joyful, relevant, and humane.' -Peter Demerath, University of Minnesota, author of Producing Success: The Culture of Personal Advancement in an American High School Susan D. Blum has written the book the majority of college faculty would write if they only had her encyclopedic knowledge, deep insight, and courage. -David F. Lancy, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Utah State University, author of The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings In 'I Love Learning; I Hate School,' Susan D. Blum courageously achieves the goal of anthropologists who work in their own culture: she makes the familiar strange. She does so by painting a vivid portrait of learning in today's universities, a portrait that those of us who love university teaching know but are reluctant to admit-the system too often fails even our most capable students. Blum leads the reader on an intimate, often uncomfortable, journey, a journey that everyone associated with higher education should take. -Christine Finnan, College of Charleston, coauthor of Accelerating the Learning of All Students: Cultivating Culture Change in Schools, Classrooms, and Individuals 'I Love Learning; I Hate School' is beautifully written. It addresses a shared set of educational dilemmas experienced both intellectually and viscerally by teachers and students in our current university system. Susan D. Blum's work is innovative in its approach and stimulating in its insight into educational history, theory, and practice. This book offers a thoughtful, intimate slant on how to make sense of our lived experience as teachers and students. -Cathy Small, Northern Arizona University, author of My Freshman Year (as Rebekah Nathan)

We should take very seriously the critique of higher education offered by Susan Blum; the book is excellent, and I highly recommend it. Blum does the profession a service by drawing our attention to the ways in which traditional educational structures put barriers in the way of our students and their learning. She has a powerful command of educational history and theory, and her insights and anecdotes rang true to me throughout the book. -Chronicle of Higher Education Susan D. Blum wrote this vitally important book to understand the mismatch between learning, 'which students may love,' and schooling, 'which many students hate.' While so much of school and college is familiar to many of us, Blum uses anthropology's emphasis on holism and comparison to make it strange and interesting again. Extending beyond college campuses to consider all of mass schooling, 'I Love Learning; I Hate School'points out how many of the practices that are commonplace in today's colleges and schools actually have a corrosive effect on student interest and engagement. It denaturalizes Western schooling to reveal its many 'oddities,' including age segregation, decontextualized learning, an emphasis on grades, and the production of failure. Blum draws on research from anthropology, cognitive science, affective neuroscience, child psychology, and human development, as well as her own original research and classroom experimentation, to show how these practices are misaligned with 'the way humans are' and actually learn. Looking across cultural space and historical time, she examines the variety of ways humans have engaged in our primary adaptive advantage: learning. Observing that teaching itself is 'very rare in the ethnographic record,' Blum finds that people tend to learn in multimodal ways, when they have a need or desire to learn, by doing, by showing others, by being active, through observation, through play, through guided participation, and when there are genuine consequences. Importantly, motivation for learning is powerfully related to perceived relevance, sociality, and affective experience. All of this helps to explain, for example, why so many students today are more engaged with extracurricular activities than their academic work: because these activities are more tightly aligned with key human learning inclinations. 'I Love Learning; I Hate School' is a must-read for all who care about educational improvement and renewal. Moving beyond critique, Blum shows a way forward with practical ideas instructors at all levels can use to make their classrooms less school-like, and in Blum's words, more 'joyful, relevant, and humane.' -Peter Demerath, University of Minnesota, author of Producing Success: The Culture of Personal Advancement in an American High School Susan D. Blum has written the book the majority of college faculty would write if they only had her encyclopedic knowledge, deep insight, and courage. -David F. Lancy, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Utah State University, author of The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings In 'I Love Learning; I Hate School,' Susan D. Blum courageously achieves the goal of anthropologists who work in their own culture: she makes the familiar strange. She does so by painting a vivid portrait of learning in today's universities, a portrait that those of us who love university teaching know but are reluctant to admit-the system too often fails even our most capable students. Blum leads the reader on an intimate, often uncomfortable, journey, a journey that everyone associated with higher education should take. -Christine Finnan, College of Charleston, coauthor of Accelerating the Learning of All Students: Cultivating Culture Change in Schools, Classrooms, and Individuals 'I Love Learning; I Hate School' is beautifully written. It addresses a shared set of educational dilemmas experienced both intellectually and viscerally by teachers and students in our current university system. Susan D. Blum's work is innovative in its approach and stimulating in its insight into educational history, theory, and practice. This book offers a thoughtful, intimate slant on how to make sense of our lived experience as teachers and students. -Cathy Small, Northern Arizona University, author of My Freshman Year (as Rebekah Nathan)

"""We should take very seriously the critique of higher education offered by Susan Blum; the book is excellent, and I highly recommend it. Blum does the profession a service by drawing our attention to the ways in which traditional educational structures put barriers in the way of our students and their learning. She has a powerful command of educational history and theory, and her insights and anecdotes rang true to me throughout the book.""-Chronicle of Higher Education ""As I read 'I Love Learning; I Hate School,' I sprained my neck from nodding in vigorous agreement. The book casts an anthropological lens on education in general and higher education in particular, and the result is a catalog of many of the things that I believe ail us when it comes to teaching and learning.""-John Warner, Inside Higher Ed ""Susan D. Blum wrote this vitally important book to understand the mismatch between learning, 'which students may love,' and schooling, 'which many students hate.' While so much of school and college is familiar to many of us, Blum uses anthropology's emphasis on holism and comparison to make it strange and interesting again. Extending beyond college campuses to consider all of mass schooling, 'I Love Learning; I Hate School'points out how many of the practices that are commonplace in today's colleges and schools actually have a corrosive effect on student interest and engagement. It denaturalizes Western schooling to reveal its many 'oddities,' including age segregation, decontextualized learning, an emphasis on grades, and the production of failure. ""Blum draws on research from anthropology, cognitive science, affective neuroscience, child psychology, and human development, as well as her own original research and classroom experimentation, to show how these practices are misaligned with 'the way humans are' and actually learn. Looking across cultural space and historical time, she examines the variety of ways humans have engaged in our primary adaptive advantage: learning. Observing that teaching itself is 'very rare in the ethnographic record,' Blum finds that people tend to learn in multimodal ways, when they have a need or desire to learn, by doing, by showing others, by being active, through observation, through play, through guided participation, and when there are genuine consequences. Importantly, motivation for learning is powerfully related to perceived relevance, sociality, and affective experience. All of this helps to explain, for example, why so many students today are more engaged with extracurricular activities than their academic work: because these activities are more tightly aligned with key human learning inclinations. ""'I Love Learning; I Hate School' is a must-read for all who care about educational improvement and renewal. Moving beyond critique, Blum shows a way forward with practical ideas instructors at all levels can use to make their classrooms less school-like, and in Blum's words, more 'joyful, relevant, and humane.'""-Peter Demerath, University of Minnesota, author of Producing Success: The Culture of Personal Advancement in an American High School ""Susan D. Blum has written the book the majority of college faculty would write if they only had her encyclopedic knowledge, deep insight, and courage.""-David F. Lancy, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Utah State University, author of The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings ""In 'I Love Learning; I Hate School,' Susan D. Blum courageously achieves the goal of anthropologists who work in their own culture: she makes the familiar strange. She does so by painting a vivid portrait of learning in today's universities, a portrait that those of us who love university teaching know but are reluctant to admit-the system too often fails even our most capable students. Blum leads the reader on an intimate, often uncomfortable, journey, a journey that everyone associated with higher education should take.""-Christine Finnan, College of Charleston, coauthor of Accelerating the Learning of All Students: Cultivating Culture Change in Schools, Classrooms, and Individuals ""'I Love Learning; I Hate School' is beautifully written. It addresses a shared set of educational dilemmas experienced both intellectually and viscerally by teachers and students in our current university system. Susan D. Blum's work is innovative in its approach and stimulating in its insight into educational history, theory, and practice. This book offers a thoughtful, intimate slant on how to make sense of our lived experience as teachers and students.""-Cathy Small, Northern Arizona University, author of My Freshman Year (as Rebekah Nathan)"

Author Information

Susan D. Blum is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. She is the author of ""I Love Learning; I Hate School"": An Anthropology of College; My Word! Plagiarism and College Culture; Lies That Bind: Chinese Truth, Other Truths; and Portraits of ""Primitives"": Ordering Human Kinds in the Chinese Nation; the editor of Making Sense of Language: Readings in Culture and Communication (three editions); and coeditor of China Off Center: Mapping the Margins of the Middle Kingdom.

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