Other People 's Children By Jonathan Kozol

The educational system of the united states is not capitalizing on the full potential of its people. Jonathan Kozol in his article “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid”, discusses the drastic difference in the quality of education based on a family’s income. Kozol discusses how economic disparities usually coincide with race, but focuses on the economic gap of education. Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast “Carlos doesn’t remember”, gives a story and a personal touch, to the issues low income students face. Kozol writing and Gladwell’s podcast, both show that the quality of a child’s education is pure chance. A lottery of being born into a high or low income family dictates the outcome and capitalization of a child’s future.

In the book entitled, There Are No Children written by Alex Kotlowitz, he writes a story about two boys that are of coming of age in Chicago in the housing projects called Henry Horner Homes over a two year time period. In their housing projects, the family faces many hardships and struggles to survive in life due to the influence of gangs, violence, death and poverty that consumes their housing projects. Living in such a bad neighborhood like Henry Horner homes proves the fact that “there are no children here” in the housing projects because the children have seen so much crime, violence and death occur that they have lost their youth and innocence as children and have been forced to become adults. An example of one character that changed dramatically due to the horrible conditions of in the projects was Lafeyette Rivers, one of the two main characters in the novel. The three most important events that impact Lafeyette’s life for the worst were the death of his best friend Craig, when his mother told him that he would be forced to become a young adult, and finally being convicted of a crime he did not commit in the first place. These three major events in his life greatly impact Lafeyette over the two year time period it causes Lafeyette to lose all hope in life and as well to live in constant fear of death and of his housing projects.

Wendy Kopp believed that it was the responsibility of everyone to stop children from being uneducated. As Wendy grew up she felt that since she was a woman there would be limits but as the years passed by she learned she wasn’t limited. She attended Princeton as a public policy major and was involved in many activities. She met a variety of people during her college years and learned more about students who come from poor communities and found that they have lower academic achievement because they were less prepared for the challenges ahead. Wendy eventually used this same idea in her senior thesis.

(182). In the inner-city public schools, the supposed “myth” of education collapses completely; students are not empowered, taking unhelpful classes like “sewing” and “hairdressing” (185); students are certainly not getting the equal opportunities as students in wealthier schools; the social mobility of these students is simply non-existent. Recalling Fortino ’s quote: “You’re ghetto, so we send you to the factory.”

In the article “Class in America,” Gregory Mantsios identifies the social classes in America as well as the growing gaps between them. He explains how people who are born in already wealthy families are well educated and take advantage of opportunities. He claims that people in the lower class are not given a chance to succeed and it is even more difficult for the minorities. Mantsios’ article relates well to Anyon’s “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work.” Anyon attempts to find evidence of the differences of schoolwork in lower class schools. Relating well along with these two articles is “Still Separate, Still Unequal” by Kozol. He discusses how minority and lower class schools are practically ignored therefore, setting them up for failure. Mantsios’, Anyon’s, and Kozol’s articles correlate seamlessly in discussing the issues of the effect that social class has on education.

All of the protagonists’ experiences are based on living in a lower socioeconomic status. Researchers named Selina Mcoy and Emer Smyth found that “The middle-classes have more to lose by not staying on in education since they risk social demotion, whereas young people from working-class backgrounds may see less benefit to staying on at school”,3 thus revealing that living in poverty or having a lower socioeconomic status is, therefore, difficult to have a good quality education. Researchers whose names are Heather Wyatt- Nichol, Samuel Brown and Warren Haynes discovered, “The widening gap between the rich and the poor contributes to economic segregation among neighborhoods, perpetuating the problem of inequality in the education and criminal justice system” (190)2, thus explaining the hardship the protagonists faced in their personal experiences. It is evident their lower socioeconomic status affected their education, and it is a crucial theme

In Christopher Hayes article Twilight of the Elites the author puts into perspective the inequality low-income students face. The author argues that the test prep industry is a booming multi million-dollar business; the best way to predict a student’s score on standardized test is to look at the child’s parent income. The more money the parent’s have the more money they can contribute to tutoring and test prep materials. It’s quite unfortunate that children from low-income families are left out of the loop it is an unfair disadvantage. Children from low-income families have just as much capability to thrive however; the resources and tools needed for them are not there. The system is set up in away that the upper class will always make

An unborn child stays in their mother’s womb for approximately 9 months. During that time, they make an unbreakable connection with each other. When adoption takes place at any age of the adoptees life, it is difficult for both the mother and child. When infants are abandoned, or feel that they are being abandoned, it causes them to grow up with many unresolved issues. This is because the first thing they learn about life is that it is lonely and hostile, unlike their mother’s womb. This can cause adoptees to grow up with many psychological issues and the major one is grief. They grieve the loss of their birth mother and the life that they could have lived. No matter how dedicated an adoptive mother is, she can never fill that void.

For the foregoing dispute are both economic and philosophical differences. Supporters Kozol - since the 60s has been steadily thinning their number - are of the opinion that the differences between schools for the top and schools for the lower classes, by definition, undemocratic, and that the U.S. should strive for absolute equality, even if it will have to cut funding schools in more affluent areas, and support special programs for gifted children. Opponents Kozol also believe that all this is fraught with egalitarianism that runs counter to the spirit of American life. Is not it should seek to ensure that children fully realize their potential - even if it means to throw in the rear of their peers academically worse? Is it fair to take away money from successful schools and throw into the bottomless abyss? Kozol well articulated this position: These people see the word must all be equal, and read them as no one should be better than others (Kozol, 2005c).

I feel that Kozol’s relationship with the people he showcased in his essay is one that showcases his willingness to expose the inequality he sees in our schooling system. This relationship works to his advantage as he constructs his argument because it allows him to take what he has seen and what he has learned from these people and turn it into something that catches your attention and makes you see the unfairness and the opportunities these kids have missed simply because of their color and their lack of resources. Kolov points out on page 350 and 351 that the kids themselves are aware that they “feel like they’re hidden,” and “wouldn’t be missed if they disappeared.” These kids feel this way because of what they see presented to them when

Of particular interest during this week’s reading was the section on “Equity and Social Justice.” While education has developed drastically over the years, educational inequality has widened as well. Rury notes “ . . . school segregation has increased, and the problems of poor and minority children have grown more acute in communities across the country” (Rury 231). Often times, it can be deceptive when we are told that something is developing because people often link development with greatness, which isn’t the truth at all. It’s often suggested that these developments are consistent with neo-liberal policies, however they are also linked to changes in the larger economy. Students who suffer the most are often from relatively poor urban schools,

In 1962, the term “child life” first appeared in the publication Working with Children in Hospitals, by Emma Plank of the “Child Life and Education Department at Cleveland Metropolitan Hospital” (Wojtasik & White, 2009, p. 10). Plank presented a detailed description of the program. For instance, she emphasizes the need for child care workers to deal with each child on an individual and age-appropriate basis, pointing out that each child has unique needs,

Many impoverished families, more often in developing countries, cannot afford to send their kids to school to even begin their education, leaving those people initially unintentionally uneducated. According to Mark Silver’s article, These Girls Complain If They Can’t Go To School, an impoverished parent in a developing country stated that their “girls are not at school because of our poverty.” In addition, parents in poverty often “work extra hours, odd shifts, or multiple jobs and are less able to provide attention and affection to devote their time, energy, and resources to their children,” which ends up causing there to be “externalizing behaviors and poor academic performance on the children’s part.” Another case with uneducated, impoverished children is when parents hold the children out of school, providing them an opportunity to work and provide for the family. On the other side of the spectrum, concerning the people who can afford school, a proper education is often not provided to the gifted and talented students, where in modern day public schools, the courses aren’t challenging enough for them, thus they become bored and unmotivated, as stated in Anya Kamenetz’s article, Who Are The ‘Gifted And Talented’ And What Do They Need?, regarding Ron Turiello’s case, where he is a person who “scored very high on IQ tests as a child, but almost dropped out of high school. He says he was bored, unmotivated, [and] socially isolated.” At the same time, a proper education may not be provided to the awfully unintelligent, yet financially sufficient people, as courses can be far too arduous

“We all have the capacity to create our own destiny.” This quote from our first African American president Barack Obama truly resonated with me, along with your story, Dr. Cleamon Moorer, that was purely orchestrated by God. Two highly accomplished and successful African American men, whose lives give me and many others hope that anything is possible as long as you never give up on yourself and more importantly on God.

How can a society both create and deny a monster? In 1989, Doris Lessing published The Fifth Child, a book about a couple who take on way more than they can handle with debt, a large family and an ideal life that they think will make them happy; but in the end, destroys everything. Traditionally, we think of monsters as having evil intent to harm or ugly appearances, but the older we get, the less obvious monsters become. Through her story, Lessing make us reflect deeply on how monsters function in the society we create. We think we know what monsters are until we are asked to see how we contribute to their suffering. In many ways, the social institutions and the societal ideals around perfection that we support help contribute to the creation and victimization of would-be monsters.