Jonathan Kozol
Jonathan Kozol
Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools
Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools is an intense expose of unjust conditions in educating America’s children. Today’s society of living conditions, poverty, income, desegregation and political issues have forced inadequate education to many children across the country. Kozol discusses major reasons for discrepancies in schools: disparities of property taxes, racism and the conflict between state and local control. Kozol traveled to public schools researching conditions and the level of education in each school. He spoke with teachers, students, principals, superintendents and government officials to portray a clear picture of the inequalities in the American school systems. In chapter 1, Life On The Mississippi: East St. Louis, Illinois, Kozol stretched his research to the extreme level of humiliation. This chapter produced deep concerns of how Jonathan Kozol described the horrific and unjust conditions in which the children of East St. Louis are forced to endure the conditions that exist before them. Kozol stressed the point the point that the city is so poor and devastated that it had to lay off 84% of its city work force and cannot afford regular garbage pick. It is a city where raw sewage regularly backs up into the homes of its resident and into the yards where the children play; and where nearby chemical plants pollute the air and the soil with lead, arsenic and mercury. It is a city so rundown that burned-out buildings are a common site and that some of its major thoroughfares resemble ghost towns. It is a city that is 98% black and which has been virtually isolated from its neighbors. Life for the children in East St. Louis is not a positive reality. Some of the sickest children live there. It ranks first in Illinois in fetal death, first in premature birth, and third in infant death. Among the negative factors listed by the city’s health
Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools
Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools is an intense expose of unjust conditions in educating America’s children. Today’s society of living conditions, poverty, income, desegregation and political issues have forced inadequate education to many children across the country. Kozol discusses major reasons for discrepancies in schools: disparities of property taxes, racism and the conflict between state and local control. Kozol traveled to public schools researching conditions and the level of education in each school. He spoke with teachers, students, principals, superintendents and government officials to portray a clear picture of the inequalities in the American school systems. In chapter 1, Life On The Mississippi: East St. Louis, Illinois, Kozol stretched his research to the extreme level of humiliation. This chapter produced deep concerns of how Jonathan Kozol described the horrific and unjust conditions in which the children of East St. Louis are forced to endure the conditions that exist before them. Kozol stressed the point the point that the city is so poor and devastated that it had to lay off 84% of its city work force and cannot afford regular garbage pick. It is a city where raw sewage regularly backs up into the homes of its resident and into the yards where the children play; and where nearby chemical plants pollute the air and the soil with lead, arsenic and mercury. It is a city so rundown that burned-out buildings are a common site and that some of its major thoroughfares resemble ghost towns. It is a city that is 98% black and which has been virtually isolated from its neighbors. Life for the children in East St. Louis is not a positive reality. Some of the sickest children live there. It ranks first in Illinois in fetal death, first in premature birth, and third in infant death. Among the negative factors listed by the city’s health