Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities

Jonathan Kozol in his book Savage Inequalities details how the public schools have failed large numbers of children and why. He was a teacher in the 1960s but had not been in a classroom in some time. He returns to the classroom in East St. Louis, a troubled area with a depressed economy and consequent economic problems in the public schools. East St. Louis is a black community deliberately created in a bottoms area which is given added problems by the water that drains from the Bluffs, while the Bluffs pay nothing to alleviate these problems in the Bottoms. Kozol discusses the problems of this area--economic, social, the crime rate--and shows how the schools relate to these concerns. He describes the different classes and the few white faces seen in these classes. He also notes how the press and critics have treated these schools, indicating that more money is spent in these schools and that they have larger staffs as if this proves they are bloated and should be doing a better job simply because more money is being spent.

Kozol describes many of the teachers, and it is clear he respects them greatly. He talks about the attitude brought to the classroom by the best of these teachers, and the reason these teachers are effective is because they bring a warmth and sense of humor to the classroom that serves the students well. Kozol talks about how money is spent in these schools, comparing expenditures with schools in more affluent regions in the suburbs. I

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ation, just as he is correct that most people think the issue is settled and do not want to address it again. The development of the welfare system is also related in part to the broad failure of the educational system, creating as it has an underclass that depends on welfare because it is either unemployable or only employable in menial positions. This idea is expressed by the underclass itself, and members of this class believe that they have been effectively discriminated against by the failure of the educational system to teach them what they need to know to gain a prominent or even middling position in American society. Kozol does not address this issue directly, but he does note how cities like New York deliberately place a number of nonwhite people in administrative positions in the schools and social agencies as a symbolic act to prove that white society is not racist while at the same time creating scapegoats for the failure of the system: It is the truly gifted black officials who seem often in the most unenviable role; and this is the case especially in public education. some of these people pay an awful price for the symbolic role they fill: a symbolism that at times appears to freeze their personalities and dra

Category: Psychology - J