In “Savage Inequalities “by Jonathan Kozol a teacher began teaching at a school so overcrowded and poor that the fourth grade had to share the auditorium with another fourth grade class and a choir. The class was so behind on their education, they had not had a permanent teacher since kindergarten. They had over a dozen subs in just one semester. This affected there learning levels, they could read at a second grade level and their math even worse. The teacher started to read the children poems by Robert Frost and Langston Hughs. But little did he know that the poems were inflammatory and to advanced for the children and he was fired. He was fired for trying to improve the lives of the children who were being cheated out of opportunity to further their education. After being fired Kozol was hired at another school. It happened to be one of the wealthiest schools; it was startling coming from one of the poorest schools. After teaching for a few years he became interested in the health and education of farm workers in New Mexico and Arizona. Then after visited schools and neighborhoods and spoke with the children, even meeting with them in their homes. Segregation stuck out like a black sheep in a snow covered field. In most of the schools he visited 95 to 99 percent of the students were non white. Most of the cities noticed and said there hadn’t been any changes in segregation. Kozol wants to be the children’s voice, and help people be more aware of what others are going through.
Hi Kayde,
ReplyDeleteWhile you provide some great info here, this is evidence of a summary, not an analysis. When you analyze, select one aspect of a reading such as:
1)Kozol's role as participant observer.
2)Segregation.
3)Kids' reading levels.
If we were to examine segregation for a moment, I would suggest examining Brown v. Board of Education which sought to desegregate the schools; however, this has been reversed as witnessed by Kozol. The inner-city schools are full of Latino and African American students. What you need to do in order to analyze is ask yourself, "What does this mean for the students?"
Ms. C