Chapter 2 and 3 Discussion Leader

My first questions comes from pages 50-53 when Kozol is talking about inner-city pre-K in New York City and how even though many of the children apply for pre-K; they are not accepted. Then a page or two over Kozol talks about how in Milwaukee the children are able to go to pre-K in a program called Head Start.
(1) My Question is if people know how important it is for children to go to pre-K , why doesn't the New York school system step up a Head Start program for inner-city children?
I think one of the reasons why NYC does not do this is because since there are so many inner-city children, the cost would be outrageous. I think some of the middle class and upper class who can afford to donate extra money to their children's schooling should have that money go towards the pre-K program for inner-city children. I know the parents are not going to want to do that, but I feel something needs to be done.
My second questions comes from page 65 when Kozol goes into the school P.S. 65 and there is a new rule that the children are to eat lunch in silence and if they misbehave, they will have to have a silent recess.
(2) I want to know what you guys think about the silent lunches and silent recess if a child misbehaves?
I think this is a stupid rule. I think part of learning to talk and also solve problems comes from talking with peers your own age. I work at the Children's Center here on campus and we tell the child when they get into a little argument with another child to try and talk it out and try to solve the problem between themselves before coming to a teacher. I feel that if the children are not able to talk during lunch how are the able to acquire these skills? I also do not think that the children should be punished with a silent recess if they misbehave. Children need to go outside, run around and use up their energy; it is good exercise for them.
My third question comes from page 66 when Kozol is talking about how there are several teachers teaching in the inner-city schools who just took a summer short-order preparation and have had no previous teaching training.
(3) I would like to know if this is even legal?
I am sure that this is legal, but is seems a little sketchy to me. How can someone teach children when they have had no previous experience and all they took was a summer course? People wonder why the child are not doing well in school. I think in order for these children to do well they need a teacher who actually has a teaching degree and knows what he/she is doing and talking about.
My final question comes from page 82 when Kozol talks about how the only way teachers are able to hang up art work or work of the children is if they fix the mistakes or spelling errors that the children made.
(4) I want to know if you think this is degrading the children?
I feel that this is not right at all. I know kids are going to make mistakes when spelling or doing an art project, but don't we expect that. They are not high school level spellers and we should not expect them to be, they are still learning. Also how would the children feel when they see their art work and realize that it was changed? Would they feel like they are not good enough?

Graphic Organizer- Chapter 1

This chart depicts the unfortunate realities faced by millions of inner-city kids who never get the chance to thrive in any way. The majority of African American and Latino students (almost ¾) in the US attend schools that are predominantly minority. These schools, sometimes referred to as “apartheid” are almost six times as likely to be a school of concentrated poverty as a school with a majority white population. There are many highly qualified educators who choose to teach in such schools, which severely diminishes the quality of learning for many of these segregated schools . I chose this graph because it shows how all of these factors build up on top of the kids and come pouring over them like hot lava, forever encrusting them into this vicious cycle of segregation and poverty.

Introduction and Chapter 1 Vocabulary

(1) equivocate (page 5): to use unclear expressions, to avoid commitment
(2) excoriation (p. 5): act of scolding
(3) equanimity (p. 5): mental of emotional stability, especially under tension or strain
(4) caste (p. 6): hereditary social group limited to persons of the same rank, occupation, or economic position
(5) frivolity (p. 18): little or no weight, worth, or importance; not worthy of serious notice
(6) pieties (p. 18): reverence for god or devout fulfillment of religious obligations
(7) arbiter (p. 21): a person empowered to decide matters of an issue; judge
(8) euphemism (p. 21): the substitution of a indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh
(9) bastions (p. 22): a place to protect or strengthen against attack
(10) pedagogic (p. 30): the work of a teacher; art or science of teaching (education); instructional methods

Introduction and Chapter 1 Summary

          The introduction talks about how Jonathan Kozol began teaching and he introduces the book. Kozol lets the reader know what to expect when reading the book. Chapter one is about how schools named after someone in history like Martin Luther King Jr. or Thurgood Marshall are not integrated, they are still segregated. Kozol also mentions how Dr. King said, "as long as the Negros basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one," (33), but right now minorities are moving from larger ghettos to smaller ones. They are trying to get out and move into the suburbs, but when they move out they end up in the same situation. Kozol, at the end of chapter one, talks about how the schools try to instill in the children that they can achieve anything they want to by chanting things like, "yes I can, I know I can." (35). Kozol believes that this does not work because society does not believe that they can.
          This section of reading uses a lot of examples to support what Kozol is saying. He repeatedly mentions how many of the inner-city schools are not integrated. Kozol is always giving examples of school that are anywhere from 96-99% African American or Hispanic.

Shame of the nation Introduction and Chapter 1 Dishonoring the dead

This week Brittany was the discussion leader.

My first question is found on page 7 of the book.

1.Why do you think that Kozol states that while some rooms were freezing cold other rooms were sweltering hot?

The first thing that I thought about was that there might not have been heat throughout the whole building. Another possibility could be that the building did have heat installed throughout the whole building, but the heat on one side broke. If the school was having trouble with money, they probably couldn't afford to put it in or fix the heat for the other side of the building. The principal might have felt that if she turned the heat up really high, the unheated side of the building might receive some heat. The one thing I was wondering was if the majority of the white students were put in the heated section while the African American students were placed in the cold rooms. I would sure hope that there were equal racial proportions of kids in each side of the building.

My second question can be found on page 19.

2. How do you think that the public does not know that for the past 12 years the Unites States has been regressing to segregation? Also how does the public not know that the amount of African American students in a school that has a population of mainly white kids has decreased to lower than it was in 1968?

I think one reason that the public does not know about the regression back to segregation rests in the fact that school officials and the media refuses to call it "segregation". The media, Kozol tells us, calls schools that are segregated as "diverse" schools. This makes the school sound like it has a wide range of students with different ethnicity's including white, black, Hispanic and Asian. However this is not true, instead "diverse" schools are mainly populated by blacks and Hispanics. If the ratios of students races in schools were published I feel the public would notice the segregation, and hopefully become enraged. I think the main reason that our country's regression is hidden from the public is because our leaders don't want to face the facts. The leaders of our country and media do not want to say that people who fought for racial equality have been forgotten.

My third question can be found on page 20.

3. What do you feel about the quote, " To give up on integration while aware of its benefits requires us to consciously and deliberately accept segregation?"

I feel that this is a very brutally honest way of stating the events that are happening throughout the country. The public is giving up on the benefits that all races gained from integration in order to make the racists that still exist more comfortable. Sadly, this will have drastic disadvantages for each and every child in our country. Finally, I think this is a very sad way to honor all those people and Dr. King who fought for racial freedom.

My last question can be found from the pages 23-25.

4. Why do you think that schools names after major equal rights and non segregation leaders are mainly populated by African Americans and Hispanics? Also, why do you think the kids in these schools not learn about segregation laws and leaders?

I think that the kids do not know about the leaders and laws so that they do not realize how unfair they are being treated. I feel that most of the kids just happen to end up at these schools while the "white" people flee. What is happening is just like when the "white flight" occurred years back. I feel that it is a huge shame in our country, that these kids are going to schools named after people who fought for equality, yet in these schools equality is not given.

Jonathan Kozol Website

Click here to go to a website all about Jonathan Kozol and the books and work that he has done.

B, Johnny, Gnice, and Marky Mark. Jonathan Kozol: Archive. n.d. Web. May 13, 2011.

Group Introduction

         The Shame Of The Nation, is about the regression of the progress made in the civil right movement, to desegregate schools. This book explains how the word "diversity" is now used by the media and school officials to disguise how segregated schools are becoming again. The book uses direct examples, interviews and statistics of how schools have become re-segregated.The Shame Of The Nation, is about the regression of the progress made in the civil right movement, to desegregate schools. This book explains how the word "diversity" is now used by the media and school officials to disguise how segregated schools are becoming again. The book uses direct examples, interviews and statistics of how schools have become re-segregated.

          As a group we all have had varied experiences with segregated or low income schools. (Matt) came into this book knowing that schools in the inner city weren’t as reputable as the schools in the suburbs of Milwaukee. I (Caitlin) knew that inner-city schools were not the best. We (Brittany and Amanda) came into the book knowing some about segregated and lower income schools.

          I (Brittany) went to a school in Green Bay where the majority of the population was not white. At the middle and high school that I attended, the majority of students were students of mainly Black and Hispanic decent. I have experienced firsthand some of the struggles a school faces when they have a school whose population leads towards the segregated side. Going to my middle and high school in Green Bay was a huge deal, often people looked down on my family for sending me there. In Green Bay a big misconception was that white students would get mugged, attacked or raped by going to a school that had high demographics that were very “diverse”. I think this will help when I read the book because I have seen some of the problems that occur in segregated schools. Also I have witnessed being looked down upon because of where I went to school, instead of it being seen as that I just went to a school. I am sure that this book will also expose many issues and topics that I did not experience during my time in middle and high school. 

          Before reading this book, I (Amanda) had a pretty good assumption of what it would be about since I have read Kozol's Ordinary Resurrections. This book, however, was published five years later, so I was expecting to learn information from Kozol that he may not have known five years before. I knew that I would be hit with facts and statistics that would both surprise and alarm me, and it was my guess that at some point in the book, I would find myself ashamed of my nation and what it is capable of. Since Ordinary Resurrections included a lot of information about our inner-city school systems, I was curious to see what new information Kozol would supply his reader with in The Shame of the Nation. I wondered if the books would be so similar that I wouldn't be interested in reading this second one, but I approached it with an open mind and was excited to read an author that I am familiar with.

          I (Matt Braun) come from a high school which is predominantly white in the suburbs of Milwaukee. Considering my school is ranked in the top 3 percent of all public high schools in the nation, I really didn’t know how fortunate I was to be given the opportunity to a good education. I’m really hoping that this book will open my eyes to the real world and Jonathon Kozol will really show me the gap between our nation’s public schools. Just from already reading the blurb and part of the introduction, I am curious to see how Jonathon Kozol is going to go about this book. I hope I am wrong, but I may come to find it to be a little repetitive and boring if all he throws to the reader are statistics and random information. Despite coming in with this assumption, I am sure that this book will expose many issues that I did not experience during my time in high school.

          Before reading this book, I (Caitlin Hennes) had some experience with segregation but not much. My high school was mostlywhite; however, we did have some diversity. I would say that maybe about 20% of my high school was of a different ethnicity than white. I know that inner-city schools have it bad compared to the middle and upper class schools. I do not know how bad they have it, so it will be interesting to see what these children all have to suffer through. I love working with children and I think by reading this book I will feel sympathetic towards the children and will want to do something to help them out. I think everyone deserves an equal education; rich or poor. A child cannot help if he/she is born into poverty, so why should we make him/her suffer when it comes to education? Haven't the suffered enough?

          We think that who we are will not have a huge impact on how we read the book because we all expect to be shocked. We know from Amanda’s assumptions that we are in for a huge surprise. We also think from the way that Caitlin and Brittany talked about the way her schools were viewed in Green Bay that there may be people who look down on these children. We do feel however, that this book will open our eyes to the world that we have not experienced in full. Our group contains white students from a middle class that has never had to feel judged because of the color of our skin. We also know that we have always had a safe environment in our schools and realize that this might not be true for other students.