my latest paper - Savage Inequalities

Most of you probably won't be interested in my paper that is due on Monday, but you should be. I am going to post it here, so that you have an idea of what I am studying and doing all day every day. Hope you enjoy. OH, and if you see anything I should change, let me know. :)

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America” (U.S. Constitution). “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (Wikipedia, 2004). All of us living in the United States have a right to believe in these words. All of us should be equal in the sight of all men. However, if we dive into actual conditions of some people within the United States, we will find that not all things are equal. Jonathan Kozol would have us look at the education system here in the U.S. as a prime example of the inequalities that do exist.
In his book, Savage Inequalities, Kozol opens a window for his readers to view what school life is like for children in Illinois, Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Texas. In each of the areas that he visits, he discusses the physical surroundings, the squalor of the schools, and the lack of supplies given to teachers. And he compares all of that to schools within the same districts that for the most part live in grandeur and have all the supplies they can imagine. He discusses the system that the United States has for funding schools and raises questions about that system. Is it fair? Is it right? Are we somehow allowing certain students to slip between the cracks simply because they don’t live in the right part of town? As he progresses in his study, he states that his deepest impression
“was simply the impression that these urban schools were, by and large, extraordinarily unhappy places. With few exceptions, they reminded me of “garrisons” or “outposts” in a foreign nation. Housing projects, bleak and tall, surrounded by perimeter walls lined with barbed wire, often stood adjacent to the school I visited. The schools were surrounded frequently by signs that indicated DRUG-FREE ZONE. Their doors were guarded. Police sometimes patrolled the halls. The windows of the schools were often covered with steel grates…I was dismayed to walk or ride for blocks and blocks through neighborhoods where every face was black, where there were simply no white people anywhere” (Kozol, 1991, 4-5).

He states very emphatically throughout his book that these inequalities that we see in the public school system are due to racial issues that we have in the United States. The population of the schools that he writes about are predominantly non-white students; African American, Hispanic, Asian, etc. The question that he raises and that we should all be asking ourselves, is does it have to do with race? Are we segregating our schools knowing that some will receive a lower education than others? His ending statement is very thought provoking and leaves us wondering what we can do to solve the problems that lie within the education system. He states,
“one is struck by the sheer beauty of this country, of its goodness and unrealized goodness, of the limitless potential that it holds to render life rewarding and the spirit clean. Surely there is enough for everyone within this country. It is a tragedy that these good things are not more widely shared. All our children ought to be allowed a stake in the enormous richness of America. Whether they were born to poor white Appalachians or to wealthy Texans, to poor black people in the Bronx or to rich people in Manhasset or Winnetka, they are all quite wonderful and innocent when they are small. We soil them needlessly” (Kozol, 1991, 233).

As I read through this book, I was surprised at how little I knew about how the education system here in the United States works and the way that the funding is used and the differences between schools, even within the same districts. I have always kept myself separate from the politics of the education system because I felt less responsible somehow if I didn’t get involved. I appreciated his fortitude in studying these schools for two years of his life and finding out what really happens inside the urban schools within the U.S. I was, however, a bit uncomfortable with his idea that all of these problems or concerns are solely based on race. That race is the underlying factor in the way our schools are funded. I grew up in a community slightly poorer than middle class. The schools I attended didn’t have much in the way of technology or extra resources. We didn’t have fancy football fields or indoor swimming pools. I’m not saying we were as badly neglected as the schools he is discussing. We were far more privileged than his students he talks about. But, there were schools at the time that had much more than I did. They were given more class choices, smaller class sizes, better teachers. And even now, there is a great difference in the school where I teach and other schools within the state that don’t have as much as my students do. And yet, it is not based on race. It is based solely on the tax base of the area. I believe that there are disparities within the school system. But I would like to see more studies done on schools that are not racially segregated, to see if his theory holds true.
This book has opened my eyes to an existing problem that is new to me. It has created a desire within myself to do all that I can to assure that my classroom is a comfortable environment for all my students. It has increased my desire to be the best teacher that I can, so that students are given every possible hope for their futures. I have also gained a desire to be more involved politically in my career; to be aware of the issues in our country and to play an active role in making our education system equitable and fair for all.
I wish that all teachers would be required to read this book. I don’t believe that I am the only one who was or is unaware of what is happening in schools throughout the U.S. We have to decide if we are really in this career for the kids, because if we are, then something needs to be done. We need to find a way for all children to receive an equitable education. Whether they are poor or rich, black or white, female or male, it does not matter. What matters, is that they all receive an education that allows them to hope and plan for a bright future. As stated so simply and yet so powerfully, “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” (Nelson Mandela).