Journal #2

Kozol has raised several points that have surprised us. One thing that surprised us as we were reading this book is when Kozol talks about the health hazards in the schools. All of these health hazards have been reported yet nothing is being done to fix them. It was almost horrifying to hear that in some schools there are rats and rat droppings in the class room. Since many of the building are old there is lead-based paint in the schools that is chipping off. Almost all of the schools are run down with holes in the ceiling or walls, windows are boarded up because otherwise the class would fall out and many of the bathrooms are unsanitary and do not have enough supplies like toilet paper. We were talking about the health hazards in one of our group discussions and we all came to the realization that if these types of conditions were happening in a middle class or upper class schools the parents would be throwing a fit until something is done. We do not think that it is fair or right that the inner-city child have to suffer in these conditions just because they do not come from financially stable homes. They have a right just like any other child to be able to go to school and not be in danger because the building is falling apart.
Another aspect of Kozol’s book that has surprised us so far is prevalence of segregation within schools named after historically renowned activist such as Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. Despite everything these people stood for and what most of them died for, the schools that bare their names are “often tense, disorderly, and socially unhappy places” (26). Kozol notes that black children make up 99% of the population in a school in Milwaukee that is named after Dr. King and another named after Rosa Parks that is located in San Diego and is comprised of 86% black and Hispanic students and only 2% white students. Kozol makes a powerful statement in regards to these tendencies, which “[stand] today as one of the most visible and problematic symbols in the nation of an expectation rapidly receding and a legacy substantially betrayed” (25). So many people gave their entire lives to ending segregation in this country, and although most would argue that racism in our country has declined immensely since the days of MLK, segregation seems to be just as prevalent as it was fifty years ago.
The final thing that surprised us in this section is how much pressure was put on the kids to do well on standardized testing. The students and teacher felt a lot of pressure to have good testing scores from the government and the school district. The big push for good standardized scores comes from President Bush’s No Child Left Behind act. Under this act if schools do not perform well on the test for several years they lose funding and eventually lose their school. In this section several first hand examples were given on how schools attempted to solve this dilemma. Chicago mandated students who failed a standardized test had to return to school in the summer for extra preparation. The summer preparation for the “retest” in the fall came with a brutal daily schedule that was outlined for every teacher and the teachers were punished for deviating from the schedule. In this section, Kozol brought up many educational opportunities and privileges that were cut due to test preparation. Kozol stated many schools different strategies in getting the test preparation in during the school day. Often times the test preparation ended up taking away anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours a day from other instructional time. Students also lost their music and art programs because those subjects would not be on the test. Finally many students lost their recesses which allows for kids to run off their extra energy and help them to concentrate inside the classroom.