What Is The Theme Of Death At An Early Age By Jonathan Kozol

Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools is a book written by the American schoolteacher Jonathan Kozol and published in Boston by Houghton Mifflin in 1967. Jonathan Kozol was a teacher at a Boston public school. With no teaching experience and no training in education, Kozol was thrown into an “overcrowded ghetto school,” as a fourth-grade teacher (xxi). Mr. Kozol starts off the book by talking about one of his students who is more troubled than the rest. Stephen, the troubled boy, had no parents and was beaten by his foster parents. Sadly, having no parents or not good parents was exceptionally common at this public school. Mr. Kozol explains how the childhood of these young

Kozol talks about how he shared an auditorium with 120 other children and how it was impossible for the children to hear him. However, because the children were raised in such a way, they assumed that it was their fault that they could not hear Mr. Kozol talking. For example, Mr. Kozol states, “I remember several incidents of this kind when a pupil whom I knew for certain to be innocent was actually brought around to the point of saying “Yes I did it” or “Yes I was lying” simply from the force of a white adult’s accusation,” (55). This was so sad to read because a child should be excited to go to school, to learn new things, and to interact with their peers, not be afraid of those who are teaching them. Another notable part of the book is when Mr. Kozol talks about what the building looks like and the conditions of some of the materials that they use. “A large number of books we had in Boston were either quietly bad or subtly bad, or else just devastatingly bad only in one part,” (73). All the books they had in that school were old books falling apart. Not only that, but they contained irrelevant information and none of the books were about black people. Mr. Kozol also explains how bad some of the school building conditions are when he says, “The falling-in of a frame of windows on a class of Fourth Grade pupils was one graphic and measurable danger,” (85). This is an incredibly dangerous

Subsequently Kozol explains, “The slowness of change is always respectable and reasonable in the eyes of the ones who are only watching it; it is a different matter for the ones who are in pain,” (#). Mr. Kozol explains that privileged folks think they are doing a fine job, but they are not going through it. Mr. Kozol also explains that a black child will never get the same opportunities as white kids,

“A little girl, Negro, comes in from a street that is lined with car-carcasses. Old purple Hudson's and one-wheel-missing Cadillac's represent her horizon and mark the edges of her dreams. In the kitchen of her house roaches creep... On the way to school a wino totters. Some teenage white boys slow down their car to insult her... At school, she stands frozen... In the basement she sits upon broken or splintery seats and filthy toilets, and she is yelled at in the halls,” (188).

This quote is so powerful because it really emphasizes just how different someone's life can be and how sometimes school can be their escape. However, in this case their school is a dump as well and they continue to get