Jonathan Kozol, in his essay Still Separate, Still Unequal, is proposing that many Americans that live far from major cities are under the impression that racial isolation in urban public schools has steadily diminished in more recent years. But truth be told, according to Kozol thousands of schools around the country that had been integrated either voluntarily or by forced o to f law have since been rapidly resegregating. According to statistics, Kozol found that between 85 to 95 percent of students enrolled in public schools in big cities like Chicago, Washington, St. Louis and New York are black and Hispanic while only less than 10 percent are white. Kozol also express how the decay and disrepair one sees in ghetto schools "would not happen…
In “Still Separate, Still Unequal” by Jonathan Kozol, the goal is to present the readers with…
First, when I look at the authors push to get an education I see in Richard Rodriguez’s essay that he was very motivated. He started as a young boy with an accent striving to learn more and attain knowledge whenever he could because he knew of the benefits. In the story Rodriguez says that he shifted away from family life to study more and learn more from his teachers. He wanted school rather than his uneducated family. In contrast, Mike Rose clearly didn’t want to be in school, he wanted an easy way out of things. Rose explains he was put in vocational classes by accident, but decided to stay in the classes with the lower level students. He explains how the teachers could care less about the student’s education which affected Rose because he saw himself and everyone as being average.…
Eisenberg (2007) and Trudell (2006) both indicate that the Sixth-Grade Centers integration plan ultimately wound up being successful for their families, but still held that the time spent on the bus was unfair to black students. Trudell (2006) claimed that she may be in the minority, but she did feel the plan was successful for her son (p. 44). Despite all the conflict, the mandatory desegregation for these schools was a way for white students and black students to see each other as human beings, and to learn that they have more in common than they could have…
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…
The readings this week all fell under the category of education and society. The first essay, Frederick Douglass’s “Learning to Read and Write”, illustrated his efforts to become literate while being a slave. The following essay, Richard Rodriguez’s “The Lonely, Good Company of Books”, told of his unlikely passion for reading and how he overcame the loneliness he associated with it. Susan Jacoby’s, “When Bright Girls Decide That Math is ‘a Waste of Time’”, addresses the phenomenon of young girls giving up on their math studies. Finally, Clayborne Carson’s, “Two Cheers for Brown V. Board of Education” weighs the benefits and drawbacks of integration resulting from Brown V. Board of Education. This essay is going to discuss the intended audience of these writings, along with dissecting the tones and techniques of the authors.…
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.…
In his writing about the ‘Other People’s Children’, Jonathan describes the views that people gives to those children who study in the abandoned schools that they view as educationally inferior. He discloses the argument from many who consider these children not to qualify for any post high school education. Therefore, the only solution for these inner-city school children is to acquire training for low-level jobs that they will eventually do. They are not privileged as the wealthy suburban that are capable of going to colleges and becoming better people in the future. Kozol states that those giving such opinions about these children are the same people against the idea of spending much money on educating the poor inner city children. He states that the underprivileged children and…
In Jonathan Kozol, “Still Separate, Still Unequal”, he explains to a managerial audience how our school systems today may be more segregated than at any time since 1954. With this segregation comes two different educational lifestyles. In order for the author to express the unsatisfactory educational conditions in predominantly black schools he uses several different modes. The most common mode that he used were pathos. In the very beginning he used the word “disheartening” on page 203 to describe the location of some of these underprivileged schools. I think it opens the readers’ eyes immediately to show them that the problem is spread out and not just in the most common areas that one would think. The author also uses a lot of testimony from the kids themselves through letters and interviews. One letter from a child read, “ we do not have the things you have. you have Clean things. We do not have. you have a clean bathroom. We do not have that. you have Parks and we do not have Parks. you have all the thing and we do not have all the thing. Can you help us?” (206). This really pulls on the heart of the reader, thinking of ways that they can help. Kozol goes on to explain the conditions of one of the schools he visited, “requires. of the limited number of bathrooms that are working in the school, “only one or two...are open and unlocked for girls to use.” long lines of girls are “waiting to use the bathrooms,” which are generally “unclean” and “lack basic supplies,” including toilet paper” (215). He uses descriptions like this to make the reader think of how unfair these conditions are to these kids and then expect them to go learn in a classroom. The author uses ethos as well. On page 214 he tells the reader that in order to really understand these conditions and what is provided for them the best thing to do is to actually go spend some time with the kids. Without directly stating it, he also uses logos mode by presenting statistics. On page 208 he explains the…
Kozol describes many inner city schools as being in terrible condition. These schools students are mostly made up of a minority population. He describes these schools as having deteriorating conditions such as wallpaper…
Using quotes from the kids and the teachers, Kozol is helping us use our emotion to feel and understand where they are coming from. With him showing his sympathy and concern towards the issue, that same feeling began to overpower his audience. He even refers to court cases that eventually led minorities to experience education period (Brown vs. Board of Education and Plessy vs. Fergueson). Pathos and ethos are some of the persuasive techniques he uses heavily as the high school students who express to him “of the limited number of bathrooms that are working in the school, “only one or two are open and unlocked for the girls to use”. Long lines of girls are “waiting to use the bathrooms”, which are generally “unclean” and “lack basic supplies”, including toilet paper.”(51) There is enough to visualize that those are unlawful conditions that will raise a red flag with the readers. A lot of imagery and repetition is used by Kozol. More so repetition because everyone from a range of grade school to high school is raising the same concerns they have within the school system. From the type of education, to how it is being taught and also the appearance of the institution; which most feel that the appearance plays a big part in students being…
Jonathan Kozol brings our attention to the obvious growing trend of racial segregation within America’s urban and inner city schools. He creates logical support by providing frightening statistics to his claims stemming from his research and observations of different school environments. He also provides emotional support by sharing the stories and experiences of the teachers and students, as well as maintaining strong credibility with his informative tone throughout the entire essay.…
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.…
The images painted in my head by this account were tragic, yet sadly too real. When he interviewed students, one in particular captured both Kozol's heart and mine. While reading his interview with Mireya, I could just picture the girl: Intelligent, ambitious, and more than willing to use her voice. Unfortunately, along with those qualities, I saw the frustration and tension caused by being underprivileged. While I might have complained about the lack of an AP class that I was interested in, I was again reminded of my luck when Mireya discussed her interest in simply wanting "...to take an AP class"…
In what ways does this essay point out the education system’s effect on teachers as well as students?…