Chapters 1-6

5 Sentence Summary
Kozol starts off this book by examining the current state of segregation within the urban school system and the irony of having schools named after leaders of the integration struggle because these schools are some of the most segregated. He then goes on to mention how the public education system is struggling to meet the demand of preschool educational opportunities even with federally funded programs such as Head Start and how statewide testing can be negatively impacted due to the difference of money spent per child every year between urban and suburban schools. Kozol also introduces us to naming rituals such as ‘Authentic Writing’, ‘Active Listening’, Accountable Talk’, and “Zero Noise’ that teachers in urban schools are strongly encouraged to follow in order to bring formality and structure to the classroom. We then get a look inside the damaging effects of high states tests and the negative physiological effects they have on the children who take them. In conclusion to the reading, Kozol examined the increasing separation between the children of the privileged and children of minorities and described a microcosmic example in the New York Roosevelt School District.
4 Key Passages
” One of the most disheartening experiences for those who grew up in the years when Martin Luther King and Thurgood Marshall were alive is to visit public schools today that bear their names…and to find how many of these schools are bastions of contemporary segregation.” -Pg. 22
“many [urban schools] have been dedicating vast amounts of time and effort to create an architecture of adaptive strategies that promise incremental gains with the limits inequality allows.” –Pg.63
“Teachers also tell me that these numbering and naming rituals are forcing them to sacrifice a huge proportion of their time to what are basically promotional, not educational activities.” –Pg.77
“These people "fail to see," he wrote, "that the two systems are inextricably linked; each exists, in part, because of the other." –Pg. 141
3 Key Terms
Segregation- policy or practice of separating people of different races, classes, or ethnic groups
Head Start Program- program of the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and families
Taylorism- theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows with the objectice of improving labor productivity
2 Connections
I think Kozol had a good point when he mentioned schools named after minority leaders are still some of the most segregated schools. Most students don’t realize or are unfamiliar the actions of the leaders that their schools are named after. I think it should be of major importance to fill students in on what their school stands for.
Personally, growing up in schools where standardized testing was such a huge deal, I was never a fan of them. I still feel as if the effects of these tests can be mainly negative. Not only are you forced to base your teaching on one test, but students are force to believe that their intelligence is based on that one test as well. I agree with Kozol’s opinion of the negative physiological effects that these test have on the children who take them.
1 Question
Growing up, segregation was never something that I felt like I had to deal with. Why is it that some places are so much more segregated than others and what makes it change?