Jonathan Kozol

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Jonathan Kozol

• Katie Gordon and Scarlett College

If there are Amazing Graces on this weary earth,
I believe that they are these good children sent
to us by God and not yet soiled by the knowledge
that the nation does not love them.
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Kozols Background

• Kozol graduated from Harvard University as a
  Rhodes Scholar and went to work as a substitute
  teacher, and later a full teacher, during the
  integration of Massachusetts inner-city schools
  shortly after.
• As a leader of the Civil Rights movement in
  Boston, Kozol lived and taught in African
  American communities in Boston, Chicago, New
  York, and Massachusetts for many years before he
  began writing.

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What Kozol fights against

• Private and charter schools
• The slide back of public schools into segregation
• Inequalities in funding between districts
• Overcrowded classrooms
• Aspects of NCLB

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Kozol vs. NCLB

• States currently provide 50 of school funding
  when Kozol believes it should be increased to
  80, with education taxes collected and
  distributed equally to the schools systems.
• Reduce the reliance on high stakes,
  non-diagnostic tests that Kozol feels are
  useless to the teacher and the child.
• Regulations force teachers to teach to the test,
  covering an objective instead of gaining quality
  learning through creative education.

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Segregation and Funding Inequalities.

• Kozol believes that the aesthetics of the
  building effect the students behavior.

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Kozols Resources

• Kozol gets most of the statistical evidence he
  presents straight from the school systems he
  looks at and the government reports and laws that
  are publicly assessable.
• He also relies on the Civil Rights Project at
  Harvard University.
• Also on other works by his colleagues.

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Opposition and Supporters

• Supporters agree that segregation in the schools,
  funding inequalities, and over-testing are
  serious problems that are present today. These
  issues should be vigorously addressed and
  corrected.
• Opposition believes that Kozol and his supporters
  are overreacting to problems that should not be
  the main concern of education today. But that we
  should be focused on competitiveness in a global
  economy and preparing students for future
  occupations.

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Kozols Works

• Shame of a Nation
• Illiterate America
• Prisoners of Silence
• Amazing Grace
• Savage Inequalities
• Death at an Early Age
• Ordinary Resurrections
• Letters to a Young Teacher

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Bibliography

• Klein, A. (2007). Author to continue protest over
  NCLB. Education Week, 27, 23. Retrieved October
  19, 2008, from http//find.galegroup.com/itx/start
  .do?prodIDAONE
• Kozol, J. (2006, November 8). The shame of the
  nation the restoration of apartheid schooling in
  America. Lecture. Retrieved October 19, 2008.
• Merina, A. (2000). Jonathan Kozol kids who beat
  the odds. NEA Today, 18, 19. Retrieved October
  19, 2008, from http//find.galegroup.com/itx/start
  .do?prodIDAONE