by Jonathan Kozol

Book buddies:  Diana and Charlotte

Epilogue

(Read by 3/24.)

Roger Wilkins has served as an assistant atorney general of the United States, as an editorial writer at The Washington Post, and is currently a professor of history and American culture at George Mason University.  Of the struggle for racial and economic equality he says, "Sometimes you have to ask for something that you know you may not get.  And still you have to ask for it.  It's still worth fighting for and, even if you don't beieve that you will see it in your lifetime, you have got to hold it up so that the generation that comes next will take it from your hands and, in

their own time, see it as a goal worth fighting for again" (p. 316).

Chapter 12

"Treasured Places"

(Read by 3/24.)

My favorite quote:  "Teachers and principals should not permit the beautiful profession they have chosen to be redefined by those who know far less than they about the hearts of children" (p. 299).

Chapter 11

"Deadly Lies"

(Read by 3/17.)

The title of this chapter refers to the feeling that all is well with our education system, especially since President Bush enacted the No Child Left Behind legislation. What is the wisest and healthiest way to educate our children?  Is it through No Child Left Behind testing?  Many people think one answer lies in creating smaller schools where students feel secure and cared for and the teachers actually want to be there.  I've taught in a small neighborhood school and also in a large city school.  Both are Title I schools.  Maybe I didn't appreciate what I had in that small school.  I certainly didn't know that schools as huge as my current school actually existed!  I really do like the diversity in my current school, but I miss the familiarity and sense of family that I enjoyed in the smaller school.  It's easy to ignore the serious disparities in our nation's schools while we continue teaching in our own insulated worlds, but this books has given me a new awareness of the "heartache of the parents of the black and brown and poor."

Charlotte,

After all of the negative stories in this book (though it's necessary to get the message to our nation), I loved the story in this chapter about the twenty two year old teacher that grew up in the neighborhood where she is now teaching.  She obviously has a lot of pride in her students and is a very good teacher to them.  She did imply though, that some of the other teachers in her school were not very good teachers.  Kozol also says that throughout the nation, there are classrooms like this teacher's, where students really enjoy coming to school, and where lots of learning takes place and where some principals let their teachers teach the way they believe is best.

Chapter 10

"A National Horror Hidden in Plain View: Why Not a National Response?"

(Read by 3/10.)

I confess that I do not understand funding formulas, and legal jargon is difficult for me to understand, but I can understand inequities in funding.  Kozol writes, "A high-poverty elementary school that holds about 400 students in New York receives more than $1 million less per year than schools of the same size in districts with the fewest numbers of poor children" (p. 246).  Apparently, efforts hve been made to take the funding battle to a national level, but it remains a state issue.  U.S. Representative Chaka Fattah introduced a bill several years ago to address this issue.  His argument is that if the federal government expects students to meet the standards of No Child Left Behind, then the federal government has an obligation to provide the resources (i.e., money) they need to meet those high demands.  I had not realized that our constitution provides no protection for equality of education for our children.    Apparently, there has been a lot of litigation to try to correct the inequities that exist from state to state as well as within states and districts.  The discrimination between the wealthy and the poor in public education is a shocking violation of basic ethics!

Charlotte,

This chapter didn’t hold my attention quite like the ones before.  I got caught up in trying to understand the funding formulas and legal jargon and like you said, it was hard to understand.  What I do realize that Kozol was saying is that inner city schools with mostly minority children do not get near the funding as other schools.  I too was amazed at the differences in funding that Kozol talks about on p. 246.  He says that a typical class of poor children, depending on the state, receives between $23,000 less all the way to $65,000 less than children in a class of nonpoor children.  He also says, on pp. 256-57 that in Mississippi, at the time the book was written, the state average per-pupil spending was $6,000, compared to the average in Connecticut of $11,000.  He says that even with all of the adjustments for higher cost of living, this puts Mississippi way behind.  

Chapter 9

"Invitations to Resistance"

(Read by 3/10.)

I must admit that I was ready to read something expressing hope for our nation's schools.  This chapter is a turning point in the book.  We are given examples of schools where integration is working -- in Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Louisville, and Prince Edward County, Virginia.  Kentucky's public schools are now the "most desegregated in the nation" (p. 228).  Twice in this chapter we read a quote by Jack White, a columnist for Time magazine, saying, "Before we gave up on integration, we should have tried it" (p. 216).  Suggestions are given for bringing about change.  One suggestion is convincing the federal government or state and local governments to provide incentives to home-builders in the suburbs to provide affordable housing in desirable school zones.  "Fair-minded citizens" could pressure local committees to rezone school districts that could break the pattern of segregated housing.  Improvements in transportation and the dissemination of information regarding school choice, along with the abolishment of acceptance exclusions based on "disability, behavior, or low levels of achievement" are also offered as necessary steps to take in desegregation.  There's a statement on p. 227 saying that "starting integration in the elementary grades made it much easier for children 'simply to be children with each other.'"  I see evidence of that in my own classroom.  When we talk about skin color and the unfairness of segregation, my students cannot fathom the forced separation of their classmates just because their skin is a different color.  I'm proud of them.  On a further note, Kozol reminds us that the 1954 Brown vs. the Board of Education decision was not about raising test scores, which is on everyone's minds today, but about giving minority children access to the majority culture and allow them a better chance at success as adults.

Charlotte,

I too was ready to read something positive so that we can have hope for the future.  I also agree that as Kozol says we shouldn't try to start integration at the place where it's the most difficult to begin (New York city for example).  Though we do need to try and figure out a solution for integrating cities like this, we can begin with cities where integration would be much easier to implement.  I kept thinking Kozol would mention what Fulton County did when my children were in school there...the minority to majority system where children could ride the bus free of charge to a school where they would be a minority.  I know that my son had several African American friends that he played football and basketball with that live way down by the airport.  Their parents chose to send them to Roswell High School to get their educations, because they felt the schools were better.  I always felt sorry for those children, because most of them had to get up around 5:00 in order to catch the bus and make it to school by 8:40.  Then, after football or basketball practice, the parents that lived near Roswell High took turns taking those kids to the Marta station, because it was always too late to catch a school bus.  I think the students were also given free Marta tokens, though I don't know who paid for them.  Anyway, these kids wound up spending hours traveling back and forth to school each day.  They said they used the time to either sleep or study.  I have a feeling most did more sleeping!  I know I would have...I guess though, that it was worth it in the long run for these students to spend so much time on the road.  I would like to find out what percentage of them actually went to college.

Chapter 8

"False Promises"

(Read by 3/3.)

In this chapter Kozol gives us a timeline of major attempts to rectify racial inequalities in our nation's school since the 60s.  He discusses the Higher Horizons program the New York City school system implemented that was initially thought to be a success.  In fact, the U.S. secretary of health, education, and welfare at the time commented that it was the "greatest single experience I have had" (p. 189) when he saw the program in operation in a Harlem school.  Seven years later, however, researchers "found no measurable improvement in the academic achievement of participating children and, in a follow-up study of the children when they were in junior high, could find no meaningful differences between those children who attended segregated schools that had this program and those in segregated schools that had not been a part of this experiment" (p. 189).  A significant factor in its decline was the reduction in funding after the initial year.  The Civil Rights Commission continued to examine similar programs in other cities across the nation -- Berkeley, Syracuse, Seattle, Philadelphia, and Boston -- with comparable ethnic demographics, but found "dismal failures" (p. 191).  Kozol's rather extensive collection of newspaper clippings from the past decades contains hopeful names such as "Lighthouse Schools," "Focus Schools," "Blue Ribbon Schools," "Exemplary Schools," "Pilot Schools,"  "Quality Schools," "Total Quality Schools," "Model Schools," and the list goes on.  All of these were highly praised yet offered only temporary successes.  Desegregation leaders have noted that "social policy in the United States, to the degree that it concerns the education of black and Hispanic children, has been turned back more than 50 years to where the nation stood in 1954" (p. 213-214).  There have been a few notable school officials over the years who have been bright spots, but their lights only shone for a brief time because of tremendous stress and a lack of support from education's beaucratic machine.  Kozol reminds us of the New Jersey principal, Joe Clark, who became the subject of a film about a school that was turned around because of his leadership.  Remember the picture of him walking the hallways of his school with a baseball bat?  He threw out the students who were causing trouble and were making the lowest scores, so the school's average test scores improved as a result.  He left that school to become the director of a juvenile detention center (p. 199), and in 1990 the students at that school were reading "below sixth grade" (p. 200).  This is a dismal picture.

Chapter 7

"Excluding Beauty"

(Read by 3/3.)

This chapter begins with a description of a writing assignment for which the author was criticized, but which seems very appropriate to me.  The assignment was to describe in writing what the students "saw in front of them each day when they came into school, what they liked, what they did not like in the class, or in the school, and how they felt in general about the situation in which they . . . found themselves" (p. 161).  Their writings told of dirty, broken surroundings and general squalor that these students saw every day.  My mental picture was of a place of extreme misery.  Kozol reminds us that there are no measures of general happiness or contentment for students anywhere.  No standardized tests paint a picture of what our inner-city students face every day of their lives.  The problem isn't confined to New York City schools, though.  Later in the chapter Kozol describes a Los Angeles school with rodent infestations and students getting sick because of dead rats.  All too often the schools with a high percentage of black or Hispanic students are staffed with uncertified teachers or teachers who are just waiting until they can leave for employment at a school with better conditions.  Who can blame them?? Elsewhere in Los Angeles there are problems with feeding a huge student population in facilities that were never designed for those numbers.  Freemont High School in Los Angeles has "15 fewer bathrooms than the law requires" (p. 177) and the ones they have are often not working or they lack basic supplies.  Students aren't given opportunities to take college preparatory courses, but are forced to take classes in sewing or hair-dressing just to graduate from high school.  When asked about this problem, one teacher replied, "It isn't a question of what studetns want.  It's what the school may have available.  If all the other elective classes that a student wants to take are full, she has to take one of these classes if she wants to graduate" (p. 179).  Even when students get into the more academic classes, there are problems with library access, inferior equipment, or physical shortages of space.  There are also staffing problems.  Kozol argues that these inequities have been happening for years, but the players have changed.  Whereas it used to be black kids who faced such discrimination, now it is Hispanic students and Southeast Asian students of low income who cannot get into the same classes that children of the white and middle class take for granted.

Charlotte,  I thought this chapter was also depressing.  We take for granted the nice facilities in which we teach.  I remember when I first spoke with the principal at the school in inner city Birmingham where I taught.  It was late spring, and he told me that the grass hadn't been cut at all.  Sure enough, when I drove up to the school, the grass and weeds were very tall, and made the school look awful.  The school where I worked was very old, but luckily the one custodian that worked at the school took pride in his work, and it was kept very clean inside.   Some of the windows were broken, but the ones that weren't opened to let in fresh air.  In addition, we were lucky that the lunch room ladies took pride in their work and prepared excellent meals for their babies.  I had some of the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had in my life, and this is when I started liking turnip greens!  I can't imagine what the children and teachers who work in some of the schools that Kozol describes feel like.  Can you imagine having to spend your days and years in some of these facilities?  Most, if not all, of my first graders love coming to school.  Their surroundings are bright and happy, they have good food to eat, and the teachers know how blessed they are to be working here, and so they're very happy also.  I would love to be able to be an advocate for some of the schools Kozol describes.  Maybe I can actually do this next year when I have more time!

Chapter 6

"A Hardening of Lines"

(Read by 2/25.)

Chapter 6 was depressing.  It's hard to believe schools like this still exist in a country with our wealth.  How sad that the tiny population of a troubled school could not be absorbed into neighboring schools simply because of fear.   "Heightened discipline and numbered lists and scripted lesson plans" (p. 159) are obviously not the answer to failing schools.

Charlotte, I agree that chapter 6 is depressing.  It’s hard to believe that some of the inner city schools are in such a state of disrepair.  Also, the overcrowded situation seems to be way out of hand in some schools.  He spoke of one school in the Bronx that was built to hold 1,800 students and had 3400 students enrolled.  He also said the class sizes are too big – too many students per classroom.  Most had well over 30 students.  The principal said that even if they had more teachers, they would have no place to put them because of lack of space.  I thought we had to start lunch early at my school, but of course it doesn’t compare to the school where he visited that had to start lunch at 9:42!  I found it interesting that Kozol noted that in general, the girls in academic classes seemed to be more involved in working on their lessons, and that this is because the boys are so far behind grade level that they can’t read well enough to understand the material.  Also, how sad that the dropout rate is so high.  He says that only 15% of the students at one school who began ninth grade there met the requirements for graduation!  I can’t tell you how bad I feel for those students in the Roosevelt District on Long Island…talk about separate, but not equal! 

(Read by 2/25.)

2/20/08

Hi, Diana!

I just finished reading chapter 5 and am convinced that every county or state administrator needs to read it and reflect on it long and hard!  It's all about standardized testing.  Kozol makes such a good argument about the way these tests subtract from actual instruction.  I'm so tired of testing!  In our county we give Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) 3 times a year.  Students go to the computer lab to take these tests on Reading, English/Language Arts, and Math, which ties up the lab for over a month.  We added Common Formative Assessments this year which are paper and pencil tests given in homerooms, but scored by the county.  We give weekly grade-level tests in reading and math.  I want to shout, "ENOUGH!"  It was shocking, but not surprising, to read about the group of fifth and sixth grade students who had no knowledge of geography, history, or social studies and science because those subjects were not tested on the high-stakes exams.  This problem may be more prevalent in lower-achieving urban schools than in more affluent suburban schools, but this ugly realism is spreading to all schools.  "Numbers do not tell us all we need to know about our children" (p. 130).

From Charlotte:

Charlotte,

I think lots of chapter 5 relates to all public school children, not just those in the inner cities.  The testing thing has gotten way out of hand.  The teachers at my school, which is in an upper ses area, are busy cramming information down the throats of students during the month of April before the CRCT test.  Also, many teachers complain about the time taken away from teaching earlier in the year for the different standardized tests that are required to be given by our county.  I can only imagine how teachers in the inner city schools feel about standardized testing!  Kozol compares the test manuals to military manuals.  He says that they were modeled after the military!  I think many parents in our area think that teachers use the information gathered from standardized testing to determine what they are going to teach their students during the school year – to help determine where student strengths and weaknesses lay.  I agree with Kozol though, it takes so long to get the results of the tests back, that they do absolutely no good!  We don’t get the results from the CRCT until the very last week of school – or sometimes, it’s summer before we get them back.  I also think it’s a shame that social studies and science are being neglected in many inner city schools.  Our teachers constantly try to integrate curriculum so that our students learn what’s in our social studies and science curriculum.  I felt for the students in New York that Kozol spoke about who didn’t know the name of their country!  I know those teachers have been busy following their “scripts” and are trying desperately to bring up test scores in their schools.  I enjoyed reading about Anthony, who despite his horrible test taking skills, was able to get into a prestigious boarding school and beat the odds.  Kozol recognized him as an intelligent individual who, as a young boy, was an “outside the box thinker”.  Kozol seems to really care, as he keeps up with these children for many years and seems to try to do all he can for them!

Chapter 4

"Preparing minds for Markets"

 (Read by 2/18.)

Chapter 4 describes a school in Columbus, Ohio, that is 93% black or Hispanic.  Administrators are so concerned about their students' futures that they flood the hallways with  Help Wanted posters and lists of management positions.  Students actually fill out application forms for positions such as "Form-Collector Manager" or "Reading Manager."  It's pervasive.  Isn't there more to an education than a future job?  I keep thinking about the curriculum model from Italy that believes we can learn from children, and that their education should benefit them as children, not just as the adults they will become. 

Kozol has noticed that business jargon is creeping into schools with words like "taking ownership," "negotiating," or  behavior "contracts."  Apparently, schools are being modeled after successful business ventures, but this may not be healthy for our students.  He notes that business leaders want "team players."  How refreshing to read on p. 106:  "Team players may well be of great importance in the operation of a business corporation and they are obviously essential i the military services; but a healthy nation needs its future poets, prophets, ribald satirists, and maddening iconoclasts at least as much as it needs people who will file in a perfect line to an objective they are told they cannot question."  Amen!!

Charlotte,

I too found it hard to believe that such young students are being asked to decide what they want to become when they grow up.  I feel for the high school students that are taking very specialized classes to prepare them to become "chefs", when actually, they may wind up just being a helper in the kitchen of some restaurant.  I don't think it's right that businesses are donating money and then controlling the curriculum!  This is just not right!!  I also agree with you about the "management" positions that children have to apply for!  This just seems too much like a corporation or even the military!  I don't think it does anything to help children that are gifted writers, musicians, etc.

 Chapter 3

"The Ordering Regime"

(Read by 2/18.)