Rating: Entertaining 4/5 | Informative 5/5 | Inspiring 3/5

This 5-part series is narrated by Chana Joffe-Walt, a producer for This American Life. She is a master of story-telling, and had me gripped in the first 5 minutes, despite the slow-burn feel of the story.

The podcast begins in a Brooklyn school called SIS (the School for International Studies) which was previously populated by “Black, Latino, and Middle Eastern kids, mostly from working class and poor families.” The story introduces some well-meaning, nice, white parents starting a French immersion programme, in which other subjects are taught in French. At first, the listener thinks: “Amazing! Great! Teaching languages to kids!”

But as the story unfolds, Joffe-Walt lays out how this programme is essentially gentrifying the school, making black and brown kids an afterthought; many of these children were already learning English as a second language, so the extra burden of French was insurmountable for many. This was just the tip of the iceberg of the seemingly well-meaning acts of nice white parents, and makes one question what is beneath the surface of other actions that, to the untrained eye, look honourable and positive.

Not all the acts are well-meaning, however. The podcast takes you through 60 years of school reform, and unearths some horrifying truths from schools in the United States: stories of segregation, overcrowded and unsafe schools, and blatant misconduct. Moreover, these stories are repeated and you hear the same mistakes made over and over.

But this is not a phenomenon unique to the US; education reform is needed all over the globe. In the UK, black school children have been given detentions for ‘inappropriate’ hairstyles, and in many local authorities the exclusion rates are five times higher for black Caribbean pupils than for white pupils. School policies, norms, and values primarily reflect the culture of white British people, leaving young black children to experience microaggressions and discrimination. Children are being failed because of the institutional racism in our schools.

One of the key takeaways for me was the need to learn from the past and listen to the people who are actually being affected. Joffe-Walt tells countless stories of white parents trying to make improvements, sometimes even trying to help black and brown children, but, ultimately, failing, as they never asked what was needed. Critics of this podcast say it oversimplifies the issue, making it appear as though white parents are to blame for every problem concerning racism in the US school system. But I disagree: I see this podcast as shining a light on a part of the picture, illuminating how inequalities can pass between generations, and illustrating how institutional racism can play out in the school system. So listen to this podcast—you won’t regret it.