|
| |
"SAVAGE INEQUALITIES" (JONATHAN KOZOL).
Term Paper ID:21783
|
|
|
Essay Subject:
Critical review of work on socioeconomic roots of failures of U.S. educational system.... More...
|
7 Pages / 1575 Words
1 sources, 3 Citations,
TURABIAN Format
$28.00
Return to List of Papers
|
Paper Abstract:
Critical review of work on socioeconomic roots of failures of U.S. educational system.
Paper Introduction:
SUMMARY
Jonathan Kozol in his book Savage Inequalities details how the public schools have failed large numbers of children and why. He was a teacher in the 1960s but had not been in a classroom in some time. He returns to the classroom in East St. Louis, a troubled area with a depressed economy and consequent economic problems in the public schools. East St. Louis is a black community deliberately created in a bottoms area which is given added problems by the water that drains from the Bluffs, while the Bluffs pay nothing to alleviate these problems in the Bottoms. Kozol discusses the problems of this area--economic, social, the crime rate--and shows how the schools relate to these concerns. He describes the different classes and the few white faces seen in these classes. He also notes how the press and
Text of the Paper:
The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.
It is not clear whether Kozol believes that this system has beendesigned, shaped, or merely grew into the onerous and harmful structurethat it has become. He is also outraged that more people other than himself arenot outraged, that in fact most of the public blames the victims and doesnothing to correct the inequities that have been built into the educationalsystem. Savage Inequalities. Finally, there is the assumption that policyregarding appropriations for the educational process reflects a more thancasual interest, on the part of the public, in preventing domination byunearned privilege. Kozol isquite correct that the proliferating welfare system has created scapegoatsfor many social ills in the form of the classic "welfare mothers" who areviewed, as one Boston journalist cited by Kozol says, as less than human.Even when the press offers support, it does so in a way that may show acomplete misunderstanding of the issues involved: Press discussion of these matters rarely makes much reference to the segregated, poorly funded, overcrowded schools in which these children see their early dreams destroyed. Kozol cites various authorities on thesesubjects as he goes, and he refers to parents who have argued that theirchildren are being shortchanged by the system. It is often agood idea to take a personal look at a subject such as this, and yet at thesame time going to schools in different parts of the country still givesthe observer only a part of the story. Kozol finds,however, that they are not followed at all in the educational system andthat there are a number of reasons for this, most of them economic oreconomically-based. This is a new form of segregation in Kozol's view, a segregationbased on race that continues long after the Supreme Court in Brown v. At every juncture, the poorer schools are forced to play catch-up, and any improvement means improvement across the board, thus leavingthese schools behind once more. In some respects, money makes a difference by providing morebooks and more equipment. some of these people pay an awful price for the symbolic role they fill: a symbolism that at times appears to freeze their personalities and drain them of their normal warmth and humor.[2] Education as it is formulated in theory is based on a number offamiliar assumptions in American society, assumptions about intelligence,the profession of teaching, and public policy concerning the structure andfinancing of education, all of which enter into the sense of school as afairness zone. The inner cityschools take what they can get. Kozol writes with a sense of outrage that seems quite justified giventhe evidence he presents. [3]Ibid., 193.----------------------- 1 BibliographyKozol, Jonathan. Kozol does not address this issue directly, but hedoes note how cities like New York deliberately place a number of nonwhitepeople in administrative positions in the schools and social agencies as asymbolic act to prove that white society is not racist while at the sametime creating scapegoats for the failure of the system: It is the truly gifted black officials who seem often in the most unenviable role; and this is the case especially in public education. He was a teacher inthe 196 s but had not been in a classroom in some time. Suchan approach has both its advantages and its limitations. The first assumption is that intellectual ability is aquality that an individual possesses as the result of biogenetic causes andthat the individual develops or fails to develop as a matter of personalvolition. A third is that schools and teachers deal exclusively withability in its purity and not with such extraneous items as pupils'background, appearance, clothes, economic status, and so on. The indignation of the press is concentrated on the poor behavior of the ghetto residents; the ghetto itself, the fact that it is still there as a permanent disfigurement on the horizon of our nation, is no longer questioned.[3] Kozol's method for gathering evidence was first to go to schools indifferent parts of the country and see what was there, including how werethe schools constituted, how were they funded, how effective were they, andwhat did parents, teachers, and students think about their situation. New York: Harper, 1991.----------------------- [1]Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities (New York: Harper, 1991), 3. Kozol talks about how money is spent in these schools,comparing expenditures with schools in more affluent regions in thesuburbs. East St. Kozol is quite correct about the skewedpriorities he finds in the American educational system, and he needs to beclearer about how to balance competing interests better in order to solvethese problems. This idea is expressed by the underclassitself, and members of this class believe that they have been effectivelydiscriminated against by the failure of the educational system to teachthem what they need to know to gain a prominent or even middling positionin American society. A fourth isthat school is alert to sudden awakenings and late bloomings and ready todo something to help. Louis, a troubled area with a depressed economy andconsequent economic problems in the public schools. Kozol is on solid ground when heexpresses a concern for what he observed in the schools of the nation, justas he is correct that most people think the issue is settled and do notwant to address it again. He also notes how the press andcritics have treated these schools, indicating that more money is spent inthese schools and that they have larger staffs as if this proves they arebloated and should be doing a better job simply because more money is beingspent. Everything from the way we train teachers to the way we assignand pay them would have to be rethought to correct the inequities in thesystem. Kozol does cite authorities andsurveys to show that what he sees is not an aberration but a pervasivereality, and this is all to the good. SUMMARY Jonathan Kozol in his book Savage Inequalities details how the publicschools have failed large numbers of children and why. Louis is ablack community deliberately created in a bottoms area which is given addedproblems by the water that drains from the Bluffs, while the Bluffs paynothing to alleviate these problems in the Bottoms. This public interest is seen in scholarship and loanfunds, state subsidies, efforts to equalize expenditure per pupil amongschool districts, and similar economic initiatives. Boardof Education ruled that such inequalities in the public schools had to beeliminated. Kozol travels to real schools to observe, and he finds thatlittle has changed: Most of the urban schools I visited were 95 to 99 percent nonwhite. [2]Ibid., 196. The development of the welfare system is also related in part to thebroad failure of the educational system, creating as it has an underclassthat depends on welfare because it is either unemployable or onlyemployable in menial positions. Kozol finds that there is acaste society in America and that the children of the poor have to makedecisions and choices that rich children do not. He discusses race in America and shows howblack people as a group are treated in American society both as the sourceof much crime and social ill but also as an important consumer segment. Itis in keeping with Kozol's general view that market forces keep the poordown and prevent nonwhites from achieving more in this society. Kozol approaches his subject withcertain preconceptions that are confirmed by his research. Kozol accepts that society does believe inthe value of these assumptions, and he also indicates that most peoplebelieve these assumptions are not only true but are followed. However, Kozol shows in his book that many of these assumptions aregiven no more than lip-service. He sees the system as having developed intosomething that perpetuates the very inequalities it is supposed toeliminate and that court decisions have ordered should have been eliminatedsome time ago. Herefers to the "manufacture of desire for commodities" in low-incomechildren and takes the position that the creation of this desire in thempushes them toward crime, which seems to be a major leap in thinking. Thewealthier schools have all the advantages--they get the best teachers, thenewest equipment, the most books, the finest materials. A second is that ability can surface anywhere at any time andshould be quickly recognizable by teachers and testing agencies expert atdetecting it. In no school that I saw anywhere in the United States were nonwhite children in large numbers truly intermingled with white children.[1]Kozol also finds that most people simply believe that the segregation ofthe past is just that--something of the past, something that has beeneliminated, when in fact it is still a potent force in the public schoolsand produces results in society at large. He talks about the attitude brought to the classroom by thebest of these teachers, and the reason these teachers are effective isbecause they bring a warmth and sense of humor to the classroom that servesthe students well. He describes the different classes andthe few white faces seen in these classes. He provides an appendix on school funding that points to this as hisprimary concern, but in fact much more than funding would have to bechanged. Kozol describes many of the teachers, and it is clear he respectsthem greatly. Education in a democratic society holds a special place for improvingsocial standing, educating the electorate, and providing opportunity toall. It is also not clear what he wants done about it,beyond shifting resources to poorer schools because they actually needthem. Here again he finds a huge difference in the expenditures in thewealthier suburbs as opposed to the poorer inner city regions. Kozol describes school in many differentregions, ending in San Antonio and showing how everywhere there is a two-tier system that leaves the poor children behind and advances the interestsof wealthier, and usually whiter, children on every scale and for everysort of program or feature. Those results are evident in theemployment situation faced by nonwhites because they lack the basic skillsthat are supposed to be taught by the schools. Kozol discusses theproblems of this area--economic, social, the crime rate--and shows how theschools relate to these concerns. While the schools in poorareas need more funding, business leaders and others fight against taxes topay for what the schools need. It is also a goodbook for starting and fanning outrage, and yet it could do a better job ofchanneling that outrage into direct action to correct these very realproblems in our society. He returns to theclassroom in East St. Kozol cites editorials in newspapers likethe Wall Street Journal finding that nothing works to improve the schoolsand that more spending does nothing to improve education, and Kozol debunksthese views and shows how they are only looking in the wrong place forevidence. Educational level is a powerful indicator of social inequality onseveral levels. CONCLUSION Kozol's book is a good one for introducing the reader to theinequalities that pervade not only the schools but American society as awhole, and this is not surprising given that ours is a society shaped bywhat happens in our schools to a very great degree. He knows thatthe schools are not accomplishing their role in society, a role ofinculcating values in students and of leveling the racial, economic, andclass distinctions that have grown up between rich and poor, white andblack, over the course of American history. ANALYSIS Jonathan Kozol in Savage Inequalities takes the position that thestructure of education in American society is based on a two-tiered systemwhich leaves the poorer children behind in terms of the education they canreceive. The level of educational attainment achieved by theindividual determines to a great degree the type of job that person will beable to get and thus the economic and social level to which they mayaspire. Kozol looks at the schools in the Chicago area and then turns to NewYork to show how these inequalities manifest themselves in New Yorkschools. It is not always clear in his analysis whether hebelieves that old-fashioned racism is the primary culprit, though he doessee racism as a component. In many businesses, continuing education is necessary foradvancement and so adds further to stratification in the business world.Social inequality is often measured in terms of educational level as muchas it is economic level, and perceived failures in the educational system,such as are noted in the inner cities of this nation, are blamed for manysocial problems based on resulting inequities in employment, socialaspirations, and other dimensions.
If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again:
or
Click here to request an essay written just for you.
|
|
|
