Jonathan Kozol on Segregation and Education Reform

[Hannah Bell]

"Who's thinking this up? I sometimes think there's a room full of people in Washington, sociopaths, certified sociopaths, hiding in the basement of some building like the Heritage Foundation, you know, people who are psychologically unhealthy, people who have never...people whose sole destiny in life is to try to make the children of the poor as miserable as they are, and we've got to fight against that....no teacher comes into the classroom with the dream of being a drill sergeant for the state...

In terms of elementary racial justice in our public schools we stand at one of the most dangerous and reactionary moments in the past 50 years...segregation of black & latino children has returned to public education with a vengeance...if you took a photo of one of these classrooms i visit, in new york, or chicago, or los angeles, it would be indistinguishable from photos taken in mississippi or alabama classrooms in the 1920s or 30s...

the proportion of black kids who now go to integrated public schools has dropped to its lowest level since the death of dr. king in 1968...

the foremost segregated states are new york, illinois, michigan and california...new york & california, seven out of every eight black kids goes to a segregated school....

i'm old enough so i remember doctor king...his dream is mentioned every year on his birthday, usually by white politicians who trample on everything he believed...they love to go to black schools named for dr king and say "i too have a dream!" but they never mention what his dream was because that could cause them political problems...

doctor king's dream was not that we would have separate and unequal schools where little black kids wear uniforms and are drilled robotically all year to bump their test scores three points on state exams..

http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2010/10/31/jonathan-kozol-on-segregaton-and-education-reform-2/

[maryf]

1. K&R (who would unrec this?)

thanks HB.

[Starry Messenger]

2. k & r

[Reader Rabbit]

3. K&R

Jonathan Kozol rocks!

[LWolf]

4. "No teacher comes into the classroom with the dream of being a drill sergeant for the state..."

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[stray cat]

5. A key problem is people who can afford to move to better schools have

Do we bus your kids from the suburbs where people moved for good schools to the inner city schhols? Public education is currently segregated by where people can afford to live and those who can't afford to move are left behind to rot