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Who Gets to Be Smart

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Who Gets to Be Smart

By: Bri Lee
Narrated by: Bri Lee
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In 2018 Bri Lee's brilliant young friend Damian was named a Rhodes Scholar, an apex of academic achievement. When she goes to visit him and takes a tour of Oxford and Rhodes House, she begins questioning her belief in a system she has previously revered, as she learns the truth behind what Virginia Woolf described almost a century earlier as the 'stream of gold and silver' that flows through elite institutions and dictates decisions about who deserves to be educated there. The question that forms in her mind drives the following two years of conversations and investigations: who gets to be smart? Interrogating the adage, 'knowledge is power', and calling institutional prejudice to account, Bri once again dives into her own privilege and presumptions to bring us the stark and confronting results. Far from offering any 'equality of opportunity', Australia's education system exacerbates social stratification. The questions Bri asks of politics and society have their answers laid bare in the response to the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, COVID-19, and the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.

‘Left me full of hope.’ MALCOLM KNOX

‘A searing expose.’ ALICE PUNG

‘An electric thrill of a book.’ RICK MORTON

‘Brilliantly explores money, power and colonialism.’ MEHREEN FARUQI

‘Debate done with absolute verve, with eloquence and generosity.’ CHRISTOS TSIOLKAS, author of Damascus

‘Fascinating, eye-opening . . . a sharp wake-up call’ FLEX MAMI / LILLIAN AHENKAN, author of The Success Experiment

‘Thoughtful, surprising and exquisitely written. Bri Lee once again challenges us to confront the structures that shape, and restrict, our understanding of the world. ‘MADDISON CONNAUGHTON, editor of The Saturday Paper Education Social Classes & Economic Disparity Social Sciences Sociology Thought-Provoking Social justice
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Lee is well-intentioned in her goal of uncovering inequities in access to education but the book lacks an organising argument/theory about 'who gets be smart'.
This book is more a series of reflections on Lee's personal journey towards realising there are inequities in Australia's education system. Unfortunately no solutions to addressing these inequities are suggested.

a personal reflection

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Unlike other listeners the tittle of the book didn’t suggest to me she would give a solution to every problematic discussed here. I’d be confident the low ratings are made by people who fit the non empathetic model described in the Language chapter. In Australian politics, left or right, have show to be two sides of the same bird and both wings exercise their turn in power aiming to retain the current structure. She’s not claiming to have the answers but rather sharing her journey to come to see her own nation from a less righteous point of view and that in it self deserves recognition.

Just give it a go

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This is an important book. Whilst a lot of the information will not be surprising to anyone familiar with the political climate/class divides in Australia, it's still well worth a read.

Very important, though not surprising

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Loved it very much. Have enjoyed seeing the authors knowledge of feminism and BIPOC grow over the years. Just wish there was a mention of discrimination against queer especially transgender people in the education system. Regardless listening today for a second time!

GOOD BLOODY WORK BRI

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I loved Eggshell Skull. I thought it was a brilliant first book- the personal story added mountains to the ideas and arguments.
For this book... the personal stories often felt, a little indulgent. As a self named white- middle class- private school educated- lawyer from the city, with 2 - going on 3 degrees, the self richeous rants about class and inteligence feel like they a lacked a little humility.
Bri largely achieves her goal of making the ideas accessible to a wide audience. (Although another reviewer made the fair point that anone right of center would struggle to get through much of this book-given the 'basket of deplorables' attitude to conservatives).

She is an excellent resercher and wrtier and she has fascinating points to make about education, class, inteligence, race and how they apply to an Australian context. Do her personal stories add to this topic? I didnt think so in this book.
Many Indigenous Australian writers have already written on this topic and haven't had such a large profile, or a pop social issues book deal.
I hope that Bri's next focus might be some more listening (as she hints at) and amplifying of personal stories of the refuggees, international students and Indigenous people she speaks so much about.

Great Research and Ideas, but Didn't Hold Together

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