In “Still Separate, Still Unequal” by Jonathan Kozol, the goal is to present the readers with…
In this wonderful exploration of life in the South Bronx and Harlem— the ghetto of New York City—Kozol poises the question “How does a nation deal with those whom it has cursed?” He delves into the bleak circumstances of the residents, the shocking inequalities between the resources and facilities available to black and Hispanic families who live past the demarcation line, 96th Street, and the their white counterparts in Manhattan and other boroughs, and complacency that keeps things the way they are.…
Eaton takes her time illustrating how inner-city students, many from single-parent families of the working poor and from crowded, broken-down neighborhoods, require more support than their suburban counterparts in generously funded schools. Spend a day or a week or a year with many of the students in Room E4, as she did, and the urgent need for improved educational equity becomes clear. Eaton supplements her portrait with accounts of the courtroom progress of Sheff v. O'Neil, a lawsuit striving to make legally clear the "blameless" segregation created by the convergence of zoning regulations, municipal politics, discriminatory housing and banking policies and the creation of suburbs. She demonstrates that de jure segregation has been replaced by de facto segregation. There are few winners in this story, and it's made clear that the problems of our troubled public schools have no easy or quick solution.…
Kozol starts by stating numerous facts and logic to support one his claims. To prove to the reader that may schools are still segregated in the United States, Kozol shows us that inner-city schools are heavily populated by African Americans and Hispanics with a far less amount of white students. In Brooklyn, New York, at Adlai Stevenson High School, “97% of the students population [are black or Hispanic]; a mere eight-tenths of one percent were white” (240). This staggering figure proves to the reader that public schools are still not integrated as the law pushed to achieve. He goes on repeatedly stating other population distributions in numerous schools throughout the country's biggest cities to. The reader can not deny these facts that Kozol used, hence strengthening Kozol's point. Kozol also uses these stats to show how communities are wrongfully denying the fact that their schools are not integrated. One school in Kansas City, Missouri claimed that their school had “children from diverse backgrounds” (242) despite the fact that 99.6% were African…
In Tatum’s article the issue addressed is the self-separation of blacks and minorities and what can be done to stop the act. Kozol’s article on the other hand focused on the separation of those students in a middle class and poor households in his article he discussed the issue of these students being separated and in some instances instead of pushed to reach a higher level of education are being taught to get ready for the work force right after high school not having a chance on the college level. Similarities In both articles occur when Kozol and Tatum talk about racial segregation in these schools and how the parent’s educators and political powers do nothing to stop these acts for happening. (pg.…
Kozol has written a book titled Savage Inedualities: Children in America’s Schools to help share with the people of America what is truly going on in the schools. Kozol (2011) shared in his speech at the BOOST Conference that one of the biggest inequalities that children face have to do with the schooling in inner city versus suburban schools. Most inner city schools have extremely large class sizes, upper 20’s to 30’s and even getting into the low 40’s, which most teachers see as an excessive amount of students in a small classroom (Jonathan Kozol at BOOST…
In his book, “The Shame of the Nation”, Jonathan Kozol outlines core inequalities in the American educational system. According to Kozol although great steps were made in the 1960s and 1970s to integrate schools, by the end of the 1980s schools had begun to re-segregate. In inner cities such as Chicago, eighty-seven percent of children enrolled in public schools were either black or Hispanic, and only ten percent were white (page#). It seems that there are many different factors contributing to the re-segregating of schools.…
In the article “Still Separate, Still Unequal” written by Jonathan Kozol, Kozol expose and expresses his concern of unequal treatment in the schools according to whether they are in an urban or suburban area. Using a series of reasoning and logic techniques, he then proves his argument that because of the segregation in schools, minorities are not receiving the same education and opportunities as predominantly white schools. Kozol uses statistic, one on one interviews with students and personal reflections to bring insight to the reader, and why he is asking for a change for equal opportunity.…
“Still Separate, Still Unequal”, written by Jonathan Kozol, describes the reality of urban public schools and the isolation and segregation the students there face today. Jonathan Kozol illustrates the grim reality of the inequality that African American and Hispanic children face within todays public education system. In this essay, Kozol shows the reader, with alarming statistics and percentages, just how segregated Americas urban schools have become. He also brings light to the fact that suburban schools, with predominantly white students, are given far better funding and a much higher quality education, than the poverty stricken schools of the urban neighborhoods.…
Are schools really meant to be separate African American and Caucasian? The author, Sarah Carr who discusses the issue in, In Southern Towns Segregation Towns Segregation academies Are still going strong or is that true? Regardless of the history Indianola struggles to make its way educationally and economically in the 21st century. This serves as a wake up call of how schools can be separated and unequal to each other . It could divide a community, also split a place entirely.…
In 1964, the author, Jonathan Kozol, is a young man who works as a teacher. Like many others at the time, the grade school where he teaches is of inferior quality, segregated, understaffed, and in poor physical condition. Kozol loses his first job as a teacher because he introduces children to some African American poetry that subtly questions the conditions of blacks in America. Years later, after holding many other socially conscious jobs, Kozol misses working with children. He decides to visit schools across America to see what has changed since those early days of reform. What he learns is horrible. Many schools have student bodies that are still separate and unequal. The remainder of the book details his observations over that year and suggests causes for this shocking state of affairs.…
Kozol sets up an excellent route to get the reader thinking about the discrimination of today's public school system. He leaves room for questions after reading the story of two very different schools. Why is the quality of education so greatly differ based on a neighborhoods economic status? Should poor communities and lack of excess tax funding be an excuse to have a low quality school system? He does not however give examples of possible…
Before reading the book “Savage Inequalities” by Jonathan Kozol, I was highly unaware of how poor and neglected some schools are in America. I thought that every school in America had a great educational system and educators, but clearly I was mistaken. I knew that every school in America was not equal; there were obviously some schools that were better than others. However, upon reading “Savage Inequalities” I discovered that it was far worse than I actually knew. The book exposed me to racism/inequality in the educational system, and at some points I had no words for such disgust and mistreatment.…
The issue of segregation in the school system affects many people, especially the students. Segregation in schools effects many different interest groups including schools, teachers, and parents but the most important are the people who are actively learning in these environments. Students. As a current student, the idea of feeling segregated due to my social class and living environment would be very hurtful and should be unacceptable in today’s society. The “domino effect” can be used to describe today’s segregation.…
The state of city of Richmond, Virginia has one the highest levels of income inequality in the United States. RVA News (2014). The poorest fifth of the city’s households receives 2.4 percent of the city’s aggregate income; the richest fifth gets 57 percent. RVA News (2014). Because of inequalities students that attend school in Henrico, Chester field and surrounding counties are receiving a higher level of education than the students that attend school in certain parts of Richmond. To date, only a handful of studies have empirically investigated the relationship between school locations and their constituencies. Taleen. E. (2001).…