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Johnathon Kozol's Speech On Education In America

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While watching Johnathon Kozol’s speech on Education in America, there were points that he made that both surprised me and made me think twice about certain topics. During segment one, Kozol talked about Freedom Schools. Freedom schools taught children to read and adults how to vote. It started during the summer of 1964. This was a new concept that I never knew about growing up. Kozol also became a substitute teacher after that summer to continue being with the kids. This showed how Kozol’s interest in building up poor communities started.
In segment two, Kozol said that “Racism is there structurally even if people don’t believe so”. There are things that still hold back minority groups, even if people refuse to acknowledge it. Some other …show more content…

Rich people can afford to send their children to the best schools at an early age because they pay thousands of dollars for this opportunity. Poor schools often have high percentages of children who are minorities. Which means that those students fall behind early in life.
Segment four talked about the uneven distribution of money going to the students. In the inner-city, schools are given less money per pupil compared to schools in the suburbs. Students in the wealthy schools have better opportunities because they take better classes in high school. A student in the suburbs could be taking three and four AP classes, while students in the inner-city schools have to take the basic classes they are offered. Most times, the students are prepared for college-level work because of this, which makes their drop out rates higher.
Segment five is about Kozol’s experience working with younger kids in an inner-city after-school program. Kozol talked about how the local school boards fought him on some of the policies and things he wanted to do to better the communities. Kozol said, “Someday isn’t good enough for kids… you can never give back a year of life”. Kozol also talked about how Fred Rodgers, traveled to the South Bronx and met the kids from Kozol’s book. During his visit, the entire community was excited and greeted him with smiling faces and warm

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