Episode Summary
Daniel interviewed author and educator, Sean Enfield, about the great American condition: BURNOUT.
Threading his experiences both as a Texan student and later as a first-year teacher of predominantly Muslim students at a Texas middle school, Holy American Burnout! weaves personal essay and cultural critique into the historic fabric of Black and bi-racial identity.
Enfield intersects examinations of which voices are granted legitimacy by virtue of school curriculum, the complex relationship between basketball and education for Black and brown students, his students’ burgeoning political consciousness during the 2016 presidential campaign, and cultural figures ranging from Kendrick Lamar to Hamlet. These classroom narratives weave around Enfield’s own formative experiences contending with a conflicted bi-racial family lineage, reenacting the Middle Passage as the only Black student in his 7th grade history class, and moshing in both Christian and secular hardcore pits.
Episode Notes
Pre-order his new book: Holy American Burnout!
NEA: Getting Serious About Teacher Burnout
A Conversation with Author & Educator, Sean Enfield, About Holy American Burnout!