Preview

Fremont High School Summary

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
872 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Fremont High School Summary
Fremont the School of Nightmares
Jonathan Kozol’s “Fremont High School” describes the tragedies of Fremont High and how the staff and students are affected. Kozol shows Fremont High School a school in LA. He explains the squalor conditions both staff and students have to put up with. He discusses everything from the student count to bathrooms all with supporting details and first-hand accounts. He presents Fremont as a failure of the highest degree for a place of education. He shows the inequality and pathetic conditions at Fremont High. The purpose is to make the school visible for what it is a tragedy for everyone subjected to it."Fremont High School" is engaging, it shows what is happening, painting a picture of the high school with information
…show more content…
In Fremont, students are forced to deal with squalor conditions and absurd rules. The staff, students, and even Kozol see no reason as to why it should be this way. The reason is brought to light with a discussion between students, which Kozol instigated. Mireya, a bright young girl at Fremont, confessed to Kozol that she did not want to go to the factory to sew like her mother but wants to go to college. A student named Fortino chimed in telling Mireya that the factory needs people to sew. He tells her that because she's "ghetto" she is already destined to sew at the factory. His words are crude but truthful. Fremont has twenty fewer school days than other schools and sometimes students need to take on part-time jobs just because they need the school credits. The school has more substitute teachers than actual teachers one substitute even saying “Just yesterday I was subbing [for] a substitute who was subbing for a teacher who never shows up,” (721). Many teachers want to teach interesting classes, such as women's studies, but can't because of the classroom shortage. Kozol shows a school that is not designed to help these children learn it's made to make them serve. The inequality in Fremont is appalling. Kozol is not showing the reader a school but an X-Acto knife designed to cut away at a child's passion until they conform and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In Lynda Barry’s narrative essay,“The Sanctuary of School,” Barry describes how schools have become a refuge for neglected children across the country, as well as how the ongoing budget, and extracurricular cuts are destroying their refuge. Barry grew up in a neglectful household, which she stated, “The high levels of frustration, depression, and anger in my house made my brother and me invisible,”(pg 1). Being a young child at that time, Barry could only rely on receiving attention at school, since she was nonexistent in her own household. One early morning, Barry arrived at her school before sunrise and was able to assist her school’s janitor. As she continued to aid the janitor, she was…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sean's Story

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The schools are seen in contrasting close-ups. At Ridge, children like Bobby are learning elementary skills that may equip them to find jobs at places like McDonald's or a grocery store when the time comes. At Sparks the attempt is made, with the help of specialist, to bring the new pupil as close as he can come to the level of normal children of his age. I particularly find plenty of disagreements among parents and teachers about which children are being better served.…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In “The Sanctuary Of School,” the author, Lynda Barry narrate her history how she grew up been depressed in a unstable family and a broken home affected economically, with parents that might not realize if they ever were gone. She and her brother were invisible due to the lack of love and appreciation at their own home. They were neglected in many ways that if they were to snick out of home at night no body would even notice them, as if they were worthless that not even their own parents would even realize that they were there. School was Lynda’s safe haven from been neglected, it was the only place that she could feel like if was her real home, going to school it was a challenged experience that it was surrounded by anxiety and panic but none…

    • 326 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Hillsboro High School’s SLC was designed to improve student academic achievement by providing a personalized academic setting, along with academic interventions based on recommendations made by the study team involved in the writing of the SLC grant. The research the study team made indicated that incoming ninth graders often face anonymity, low expectations, and early academic failure. The goal of the SLC’s was to address these problems by creating a structure that provided students with a more personalized learning experience, and in turn we would see an increase in student academic achievement in the areas of reading and math, as measured by state assessments and student participation in rigorous course work.…

    • 375 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    12/10/2014 Fremont Unified School District / Fremont Unified School District Our District Board of Ed Parents & Students Committees Community Departments Employment Educate, Challenge and Inspire…

    • 505 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Marita’s story, she is given an opportunity to attend KIPP Academy. KIPP Academy is a middle school for underprivileged kids in New York City. Most of the students here are from single parent homes and receive government help to pay for lunches. In order to be successful, the school reinforces the idea of organization and respect. Marita started attending KIPP when she was twelve years old. Everyday she wakes up at five forty-five and heads to school,…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    South L. A School Ethos

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Throughout the description and analysis of the horrific reality of violence in a Southern L.A. School, the author effectively used ethos and pathos to stress the importance of the story to readers. Beatty’s combined experience and closeness to the situation makes her testimonial trustworthy and authoritative. In addition to having a firm understanding of the shootings in South L.A., the Author utilizes pathos through her emotion to guide readers to arrive at a deeper level of understanding about the situation. In doing this she effectively introduces the truth of the lives of many kids that attend her school. Beatty’s effective use of ethos and pathos illustrates a clear and authoritative image of the South L.A. school shootings and their…

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    With its enormous clock tower rising high above and red bricks outlining the exterior, lies Hillsborough High School. The oldest high school in Tampa and one of the souths oldest high schools with its unique and equally gorgeous gothic revival architecture (Kennard 1928) one can tell driving by its Hillsborough High. The school has made in impact in Tampa with its students and faculty with many notable people graduating from the school like the Gerber Baby and many famous football players that have played in the NFL and are in the football hall of fame.…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kozol’s relationship to the people who are the subjects of his essay to be comfortable, and seems to have an effective way to communicate with teachers as well the students where they feel comfortable to address their issues with him. Kozol’s seems to have built some trust with his subjects where they speak freely about their concerns and opinions. His relationship with his subjects is effective and aids to his argument that schools are still segregated. For example, where is talks to students from the Fremont High School and they tell him that they would have to take unbeneficial courses to graduate that were not assist them in any way to get into a good college or in the career path they would want to follow. They couldn’t take AP courses…

    • 185 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The desire of the teacher to protect his students has caused him to soften the harshness and reality of the past. Not wanting to corrupt their innocence, “he told them the Ice Age was really just / the Chilly Age, a period of a million years / when everyone had to wear sweaters” (lines 2-4). Rather than telling them the truth about the War of Roses, he told them that it “took place in a garden” (line 11). Once they leave the classroom, the children go to “the playground to torment the weak / and the smart / mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses” (lines 15-17). While this is happening, their history teacher is “walking home / past flower beds and white picket fences” (lines 18 & 19) and wondering if the children will believe his next lesson. The misconceptions of the history teacher may seem innocent enough, but the children will never be able to understand the mistakes of the past if they are never told the truth. Had the children been taught properly about the past and the consequences of violence, perhaps they would not have been so eager to behave so harshly towards those who seemed physically inferior to them. Sadly, the teacher seems oblivious to the fact that the students are behaving in such a manner.…

    • 372 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For most of the existing teachers, integration has ruined the school. Most of the “smarter people” have been replaced with many students who will be lucky to graduate. She choose the school on purpose because of its integration program. But Erin is unprepared for what she got herself into. These students live by strict actions of protecting their own kind. Many are in gangs and almost all know somebody that has been killed by gang members/violence. The world they live in is so full of hate. Latinos hate the Cambodians, who hate the blacks, and so on. These students seem to hate Mrs. Gruwell more than anyone. When Erin holds a discussion about a recent drive-by shooting death she begins to understand what she's set herself up for. When she provides an assignment of writing a daily journal, and is not ready by Erin unless they choose to, then the students begin to open up to her. Erin tries harder and harder to have resources provided to teach in a way where they feel less divided from others. She ends up supporting her ideas herself. Later on their are people who agree/ disagree of her ideas. But despite all of that she still teaches her students how to succeed by helping think positive about their future. These journals really helped people share their stories instead of keeping everything on the inside. This made them feel happier all together. The “Line Game” is important because it shows the commonalities that Gruwell’s students were going through. The "Line Game" showed what they had passed through in their short lives. Students saw reasons to interact with each other because of their shared, common experiences. The "Line Game" gave Gruwell the inspiration to introduce the journal to her students. These students also realized that everyone is unique in their own way. This book had a lot of meaning and is inspiring to most…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Something to Remember

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A. The atmosphere when I was in high school really relates to the authors feelings about ‘School or Prison’. “Unfortunately, my school is losing qualities of high school.” (Peifer) To me after the budget cuts back in high school a lot changed. My classes got really big in size. To learn was a struggle in the type of environment the class was. The teachers spent more of their time talking about students bad behavior then teaching us the material we needed to learn.…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Summary

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Rafe’s mother worked double shift at a diner. She worked long hour and did not have enough time for her son and daughter. She had an abusive fiancé who was lazy, who neither work nor contributed to the household. Rafe’s mother not paying enough attention to him, the fiancé who was abusive and his acting out at school finally earn Rafe expulsion from school for the rest of the school year. His Mom was informed about the expulsion from school and the challenging issues Rafe faced at school. Guidance was given about his artistic ability and an artistic magnet school that was best suited for his abilities.…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    26). The perspectives are limited. Since McLaren’s teaching experience with economically unfortunate students, highlights the charming or pitiful characters, the moments of despair and hope, the inexplicable or entertaining antics, and the fierce incidents related to both pupils and teachers. McLaren entries are a part of the school experience. But daily life in school classrooms is beyond a succession of heartless events. There is also an aspect of living together for almost five or six hours daily, monthly and yearly. Once in a blue moon did these McLaren’s episodes provide discernment into pedagogic relationships with neither the average children, nor the teacher’s part in the school classroom as he meditated over the issues and the organization of time and space in connection to the needs of his learners. Additionally the stories were written from the journalist perspective as opposed to a teacher’s perspective. The incidents in the book are becoming repetitious since new aspects of classroom life were neither established nor was larger perception into schooling given a person reads page 132-182 pages. This section ends with a resilient summary of the failures of the dogma of education equality and the necessity for teachers to be dedicated…

    • 1065 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Freedom Writers

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages

    As the teacher reads the students journals, she begins to realize that these students live tragic lives and because of that, it causes separation in her classroom between each other. Once she understands what is going on she starts to try and unite them. At first it doesn’t work but as the story goes on, students from different gangs start to become friends. “Mrs. G” had read the journals and realized that the only thing different between the students were their skin color. She then figured out how to teach them, and by giving them the journals, she is able to understand them, and as she teaches, they both become understanding of each other. She then begins to boost their confidence in themselves because now they know that they’re not the only ones living an unhappy life. After both sides are connected, and “Mrs. G” shows that she cares for the students, then the students start to show her respect because she wants to be apart of their lives. Now instead of the classroom feeling like jail, the students love to come to school because it feels like home to them, and they will never leave…

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics