Savage Inequalities Book Review Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol is an in-depth analysis of America’s public school system and the problems that encompass it. Kozol’s book examines some of the poorest public schools in the United States and attempts to explain how the school or school district plummeted so far into the depths of poverty. Kozol believes that the biggest problem public school faces is segregation, which is still very real in many parts of the United States. Racism and a lackadaisical attitude toward the education of minority groups in America are the roots of the problems that public schools face.
In Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools, Jonathan Kozol exploits extreme inequalities between the schools in East St. Louis and Morris High in Rye, New York in the 1990s. The living conditions in East St. Louis were deplorable. There was no trash collection service, the sewage system was dysfunctional, and crime, illness, poverty, and pollution ran rampant. The schools in East St. Louis had a predominately black student population, and the buildings were extremely obsolete, with lab equipment that was outdated by thirty to fifty years, a football field without goalposts, sports uniforms held together by patches, and a plumbing system that repeatedly spewed sewage. In addition, there was a substantial lack of funds that prevented
Schooling for the students Schooling systems have been the same since anyone could remember. What might need to change for students to get the equal amount of education as the “gifted” students? Will students still benefit from the lack of renewal in the education system? According to the authors from chapter 4 "How We Learn" Alfie Kohn, John Taylor Gatto, Bell Hooks, and Kristina Rizga, explaining in their essays published in "Acting Out Culture" by James S. Miller.
Inequality in America is creating trouble to the lives of Americans. Education is one of the most important subjects in America today. Education is material that can allow children and even adults to become successful in life. Paul Krugman writes, “… middle-class families buy houses
or she saw with one or two low-income student. As a future counselor, a statement in such matter showed that this person should not be a teacher. That teacher prefers to not integrate his or her school. Looking at this article through a counselor lens, I believe it is our duties to advocate for all students no matter their SES or ethnic background. There is clearly more work in advocating for students in working class school, but there are students that still needs our help in the upper class school.
Kozol, Jonathan. 2007. "Savage Inequalities." Pp. 341-347 in Sociological Odyssey: Contemporary Readings in Introductory Sociology, edited by Patricia A. Adler and Peter Adler. Belmont: Thompson.
In James W. Loewen’s “The Land of Opportunity,” he states that social class affects the way children are raised. He discusses the inequality in today’s society and how the textbooks in high school do not give any social class information. The students in today’s time are not taught everything they should be taught. He states that your family’s wealth is what makes up your future. Loewen discusses that people with more money can study for the SATs more productively and get a better score than someone who has less money.
Martha Peraza SOC 3340 Inequality in Education California State University, Bakersfield Abstract In the United States, there exists a gap in equality for different demographics of students. The factors contributing to educational disadvantages include socioeconomic struggles, gender of students, language or culture, and particularly for the scope of this paper, race.
The author’s purpose is to wake up the policymakers of the educational system in order to raise the standard of the quality of education each child receives regardless of income. Ravitch writes to an audience that are invested in the construction of the educational system and the parents along with other interested readers. Ravitch establishes a formal and professional tone for her audience. In this essay I will be focusing on a particular element Ravitch
Education Reality in America “All systems of the society are meant to serve the mind, not the mind to serve the systems,” by Abhijit Naskar. The Rhetorical situation in the essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid” by Jonathan Kozol happens to be the differences in school systems by ethnicity rates. It is interpreted by the speaker that minority races are shown by the government they are not equally important because they have a lack of funding, old school buildings, and only are introduced to the races they see every day unlike the white schools who are introduced to various ethnic groups. The readers would refer to the speaker as passionate about the government making an effort to fix the school
Seika McKee Dickens ENGL 1113 1 OCT. 2015 The Hidden Education in the Poor Perhaps one of the most valuable opportunities in life is education. In a conversation between Adam Howard, associate professor of education at Antioch College, and Arthur Levine, president of Teachers College at Columbia University, in “Where Are The Poor Students,” some subjects at hand are the availability or unavailability of opportunities, the missed value of education, and the irrelevant comparison of test scores directed towards the poor students.
In the article “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Education Apartheid” author Jonathan Kozol argues that segregation is still a major issue in our education system. Kozol talks about schools where minorities make up the major student body. He states that schools with namesakes tied to the civil rights movement are some of the most isolated schools for minorities where white students make up less than a third of the student body. Kozol proceeds to talk about these schools where minorities make up the student population, he says that these are some of the poorest schools they are old and in need of repairs and new technology and supplies. He says that the education of these students has been deemed less important and that they are not
These students don’t get equal opportunities as those students attending elite schools. Authors Toni Cade Bambara and Jonathon Kozol have written vivid examples on how working class students have been impacted by segregation in school. Working class schools
Mann saw children forced into working in the factories so they can earn enough money to help their family. Mann states “universal education can counter work this tendency” Horace Mann’s idea of this free education for all will create opportunities for anyone of any socioeconomic class to rise up leading to a population of literate people which will “increase the intellectual consistency”. This will bring young children out of the harsh working conditions of factories and placing them in schools which will lead them to a more intellectual future. We can see the wonders of education in more recent narratives by David L. Kirp and Antonio Alvarez. In David L. Kirp’s article “The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools”, the reader finds out that Union City is a “poor community” with an “unemployment rate 60 percent higher than the national average” Union City is a great example of how a poverty-stricken community can still achieve high education success rates.
Inequalities have always existed in society. These inequalities are often perpetuated through education. While the United States Supreme Court supported desegregation of schools and struck down the idea of “separate, but equal” in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education cases, there still exists many inequalities within the United States educational system today for minority races and people of the lower economic classes. Ann Ferguson in her article “Bad Boys” discusses punishment practices in schools and the detriment these practices provide as they resemble incarceration. Conley in his article “Education” discusses education acting as a sorting machine and the tracking of students.