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Summary Of Shame Of The Nation By Jonathan Kozol

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When you look up “apartheid” in a Google search, you will find many websites that describe segregation in great detail, especially in regards to areas in South Africa. You will not find many articles that describe segregation in the United States of America. In Jonathan Kozol’s Shame of the Nation, it was his mission to make people understand that segregation is still alive in our country, with much focus on the educational system of our country. The author describes his astounding firsthand experience with segregation in our public school systems and how it can seriously impair a child’s educational experience. While many may believe that segregation has been resolved in our country, in his book, Kozol has provided statistics and personal …show more content…

Kozol pointed out that conditions such as deteriorating schools, lack of teaching materials and overcrowding of classrooms are all due to the lack of funding in less fortunate schools. Most of these less privileged schools are made up of African-American students. In The Shame of the Nation, Jonathan Kozol consistently considers the conflict theory, but one of the most powerful statements in relation to the conflict theory came in Chapter 2 of the text. Kozol describes an elementary school that was built to hold 1,000 students but was filled with 1,500 instead. In this same school, a plastic garbage bag was covering part of a collapsing ceiling. The principal of the elementary school told Kozol that this is the type of deterioration that is seen in ghetto schools across the country. He was also bold in stating that this would not happen in white schools across country and that minority students are not valued in the same sense as white students (KOZOL, 2005???). Conflict theorists will argue that schooling privileges some children and disadvantages others (TEXTBOOK, CITE). When the principal says that the wear and tear on the school would not be replicated in a school with white children, he was explaining that his students had severe disadvantages because they were minorities. The principal even goes out of his way to mention that he doesn’t believe that his minority students were not as valued as white students, another true example of the conflict

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The essay by kozol shows the harsh reality about the uneven funds and attention given to the schools were many poor and minority students attend. During a visit to Fremont high school in 2003, Kozol claims that school that are in poverty stricken areas appear to worse than school that are in high class neighborhoods. Throughout the essay, kozol correlates between the south central Los Angeles high school and the wealthy high schools that are in the same district. When he learned the graduation requirement at Fremont and the classes the school had offer to accomplish this requirements, Kozol was amazed at how academically pointless the graduation requirements at Fremont and the classes to accomplish them were. Kazol compared this to AP classes

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Michie’s “Holler If You Hear Me” and Kozol’s “Still Separate Still Unequal” are quite alike, considering they both discuss south side Chicago schools. However, the differences between the two texts far outweigh the similarities. Although there are a few similarities, such as both authors discussing and calling out the issues of segregation in their texts, there are many differences, such as Michie’s work being a narrative while Kozol’s is not and only contains anecdotes. In addition, Michie focuses on the experiences and opinions of students, instead of also discussing the physical state of inner-city schools or the strategies of teachers.

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“A racist system inevitably destroys and damages human beings; it brutalizes and dehumanizes them, blacks and whites alike” (Kenneth Clark). Kenneth Clark was a very important person in helping the Brown V. Board Of Education case win. Winning that case was important because a state law came into place that said separate public schools for black and white students were unconstitutional. A Raisin in the Sun shows how Clark was right; a racist system affected the way the Youngers’ lived. The Youngers’ apartment in the Southside of Chicago: in the 1950s; significantly affected the Youngers’ lives.

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Kozol highlights the problems in the poor school

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Kayla Green Dr. Anne Durst EDFND 243-02 March 25, 2018 Reading Analysis Three Up until 1954, southern schools in the United States were segregated by race. These schools were legally segregated due to the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling in 1896, stating that black and white institutions can be separate, as long as they are equal. For decades the NAACP fought for black students to have an equal education. Their hard work paid off in 1954, when the ruling of the Brown v. Board of Education ruled that this segregation was unconstitutional.

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Jamelle Bouie’s article titled, Still Separate and Unequal-Why American schools are becoming segregated once again, touches on the history of desegregation in American schools but focuses how statistically minority students are more likely to attend majority- minority schools than in previous generations. This article points out that poverty and segregation play a direct role in the school system. While drawing connections between school segregation, concentrated poverty, entrenched segregation, and housing discrimination it also presents the authors not so optimistic view on future reforms to segregated schools, districts, and educational equality as he states in regard to education equality, “To do this, however, requires a commitment to

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In southern society, in the Southern United States of America, from the period of the late 19th century to through a considerable amount of the 20th century, the structure of society had been held up like a sturdy Roman bath house. The “three pillars” that can be attributed to the strong foundations of the society in the Southern U.S.A includes: racial segregation, a cotton economy, and Democratic Party control. And in fact, these crucial pillars had been the source of a strong Southern society. But as always, time can break down even the most solid structure.

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Education reform writer Jonathon Kozol in Shame of the Nation exemplifies the extreme amount of inequality between different socioeconomic and racial groups in education. Kozol highlights that African-American and Hispanic students receive limited resources and are often patronized by a belittling curriculum. His passion lies in showcasing the struggles of the disadvantaged students in underprivileged communities; through anecdotes and interviews he recounts the poor conditions of different schools in comparison to white suburban districts (Kozol, 2005). Kozol would be skeptical, yet accepting of The Cleveland Plan because the intentions of the education initiative aligns with portions of his reform philosophies; however, he would not concur with the methods of how the students’ performance are measured. Kozol is a proponent of teachers dedicated to learning rather than their ability to make students pass an assessment.

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In summary, "The Nations Shame" is a descriptive article based on the facts and information of child poverty as well as,other surrounding factors . To further explain, the article is constructed by facts and logic to give the reader insight on why exactly child poverty is an issue. For example, the author brings up a topic of single women living in the U.S.. James Henslin then backs his argument by going in depth into how single parenthood correlates with child

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How could impoverished city residents not having proper access to resources in their communities and school systems impact children and even teachers in school? In the novel, There Are No Children Here, the author, Alex Kotlowitz, retells stories of the residents of Henry Horner public housing who are shown to have inadequate support from the Chicago Public School System and community around them. Considering that these students and teachers did not have enough support from the school and community, it’s evident that the Chicago Public School System could not effectively meet their needs. It’s clear that the Chicago Public Schools system is severely underfunded. A great example of this is a situation in which Pharoah and Lafayette’s elementary

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Louis alone are certainly alarming, I am most dismayed by the responses of the children from Morris High. It is evident that the children at Morris High do not fully understand the implications of racial inequality, nor do they regard the immense suffering of children in schools like those in East St. Louis. However, if I were a young white girl from a high class family attending Morris high, I too might have the same outlook. I likely would have been taught to acknowledge the inequalities faced by the minority, but would not have been taught the privileges I have experience for being white. If I were suddenly to start attending East St. Louis schools, however, the inequalities faced by my new peers would become much more apparent.

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De jure segregation in the United States started to decline with the Brown vs Board Of Education Supreme Court ruling in the 1950s, and continued to decline through the actions of Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and others who protested against the system in hopes of being heard. But even with the passing of the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s, segregation is still a prevalent force in today’s society. De facto segregation is still felt today, with riots occurring within the past ten years in Ferguson and in Baltimore, predominantly due to police brutality and income inequality. These riots, coupled with actions such as the unjustified killing of Trayvon Martin and the murder of Eric Garner while in police custody, help to show that where we are today is no better than the racist times of de facto segregation and Jim Crow. When events like these occur in today’s

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Before1954, human behavior could have segregated public education through two methods: de facto and state mandated. The former arose from residential patterns and local school policy; the latter had roots in innate discrimination based on racial classifications. “Some have suggested that the de jure-de facto distinction is wholly artificial. If only the facts were known, they argue, any long-continued racial imbalance would be found the product of purposeful segregation policy and school authorities” (Goodman 1). This argument proved correct, and desegregation efforts shifted to the constitutionality of laws.

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792 Words | 4 Pages

The Heart of Giving Dick Gregory, in the chapter “Shame” from his autobiography Nigger: An autobiography tells a story from his childhood that influences him and influences how he views others. Gregory was in grade school and the class was collecting money for the chest. The chest was for the low income families, which little Gregory was indeed a part of. Gregory was the one who washed his same clothes day after day.

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646 Words | 3 Pages

Unsatisfactory schools do not maintain suitable conditions for students to learn and they are not treated as well as students from other schools. An example of this is in Kozol’s Fremont High School when it states that, “Long lines of girls are ‘waiting to use the bathrooms,’ which are generally ‘unclean’ and ‘lack basic supplies,’ including toilet paper” (Kozol 707). Student who have the desire to go to college hit dead ends in the school. One of the most impactful parts of the passage was when Kozol quoted Fortino saying, “You’re ghetto, so we send you to the factory” (Kozol 710). This shows the distrust that students in low-income areas feel toward our education system.

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