America's apartheid schools: "There were nine rats in the classroom."

[Karmadillo]

Seems like here's an issue for the Democrats to run with.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000088&sid=ajBn2mIaAr_E&refer=culture

Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- For his new book on the failures of the American education system, Jonathan Kozol visited about 60 big city schools, documenting their most glaring maladies in his new book ``The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America'' (Crown/Random House, 404 pages, $25).

Kozol, a National Book Award-winning writer, takes an unflinching look at the widening racial divide in schools across the nation. He found black students standing during classes because of a lack of chairs and desks; teachers spraying kids with water in stifling rooms without air conditioning; leaking roofs that created indoor puddles and streams; dead rats.

``I saw the fat rat dead,'' wrote one child from a California school, according to court papers obtained by Kozol. ``There were nine rats in the classroom.''

The book is really a tale of two U.S. school systems, a web of poor urban schools inhabited mostly by minority students, and the wealthier public and private school systems attended by mostly white students.

Kozol, a Harvard graduate and Rhodes scholar who has written passionately about the problems facing U.S. schools, walks us through the hallways and into classrooms. We meet Pineapple, a black student in the South Bronx, who asks Kozol, who is white, a question which astonishes him: ``What's it like, over there where you live?'' By ``over there,'' Pineapple was referring to neighborhoods where mostly whites live.

[henslee]

1. Serious problems where I am at in Dade County, Florida. They are

obsessed with getting good grades on these standardized tests and teaching kids phonics to the point the poor kids are dizzy. No more interesting stories are ever read. Nurturing educational curiousity has been rubbed out. "It's all bob bough a bug for his rug" We can thank Rudy Cruise, ex NY educational chancellor who just took over down here.

[bullimiami]

4. jeb and his crony fucks are destroying public education and making

a healthy profit in the mean time.

[sufrommich]

5. The chronic problems

at inner city public schools have been ignored for many,many years,by republicans ans democrats alike.

[sam sarrha]

11. i hear there is a serious epidemic of 3rd graders and 20% of the high scho

school Seniors failed the test..

i hear the 3rd graders are backing up worse than a toilet in the projects... the test is bad and they cant pass it..

[henslee]

12. There is nothing more humiliated than an older kid stuck in the same

grade for two years. Talk about self esteem issues.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. That problem is nationwide

not only in Florida.

[yewberry]

2. M. Kozol was in Seattle speaking (again) this week.

He can be a really galvanizing speaker, but his books (and particularly "Shame of the Nation") make me want to run into the street and shout at passing cars.

The quiet dismantling of Brown has the schools in this country more segregated and inequitably-funded than they've been in half a century. Along with hypersegregation, funding and districting strategies leave poorer schools with dwindling resources, forcing them into accepting less-than-adequate curricula and "help" from corporate "partners" that is quoted in Kozol's book as "classroom Taylorism."

The book is great, but it's heart-breaking.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

3. Talk me out of my disillusionment

with Kozol. I came through college in the early '70's and was totally indoctrinated into a ridiculous theory of education known as "The Open Classroom." He was a prime architect of this movement and his books at the time were required reading. I met him and was capitvated. But the reality of life at the head of a classroom of 30 was very different than his vision. Since that horrible experience (that almost sent me running out of education) I have not read anything he's written. Maybe I should start, but I have a hard time with trust.

Now, I CAN discuss the schools here in Tallahassee, and you don't get any deeper south than this. Yes, there is an element of defacto re-segregation back in play. The traditional "white" schools, however, have a pretty decent percentage of minority students because of the integration of middle class subdivisions in the past two decades. The schools in the predominantly black neighborhoods remain black schools, as few white move INTO those areas. I travel for my job (administering IQ tests) and have been into every school. The issues he raised (quoted in the article) I have not seen. Every school in this county is up to standards, clean, air conditioned and well cared for. No rats. But of course, I can't speak for the rest of the country.

That said, I am wondering what his solution is? Does he advocate returning to bussing?

[IndyOp]

6. Kozol advocates federal funding of schools --

The education of students in NYC and Trenton New Jersey and Austin Texas matters to us all. We educate them to become good citizens of the nation - not good students of a particular county in a particular state.

Kozol also advocates an end to the No Child Left Behind testing that can be used to punish schools that are working hard, but kids that are less well prepared for school.

----------------

My opinion: If property taxes were put into a big federal pool (even state pools) and divided so that the same amount of money was spent on all children that would revolutionize education & the state of our nation.

I definitely was not reading Kozol when was publishing in the late 60's. (I was born in 1965). I suffered (mildly) in an open school that never should have been. The teachers weren't given the support needed to make it work, so I think can understand some of what you are feeling.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

7. Well I agree with him about

the NCLB nonsense. In my school we refer to it as "No School Left Standing."

And I do agree that education everywhere should be a national priority..I was using my school district only because that is the one I know the most intimately. And I do live in one of the most poverty-stricken areas in the country. Gadsden County, about two miles from me, has the highest infant mortality in the nation. It is a disgrace. But the schools are in decent shape as far as their physical plant. I can't say the same for the quality of the education, but I'm assuming that is not his point.

You are correct that teachers weren't supported in the Open Classroom. It sounded so great, so idealistic on paper but it went bust. It is a system that would work so well in the little one room school house. But we tried to fit it into an institution that wasn't having any, thank you.

[IndyOp]

10. His point is really more about quality of education than physical plant -

the stories about decaying schools with dead rats, no light, reeking of urine -- those stories communicate in a way that trying to describe teacher behavior or student behavior doesn't. That is my take anyway...

In the interview I heard on AAR, Kozol talked about how the children of his Harvard friends' paid for preschools that cost $23,000 per year and prepared those children beautifully for school. To compare children with this kind of advantage to kids who may not even get kindergarten is a cruel joke.

:grr:

[TallahasseeGrannie]

14. This sounds like an idiotic question

but I really don't know. Is there actually a state where kindergarten isn't available for free? Here in FL, where we are NOT in the forefront in all things educational, we have a free pre-K program.

I'm horrified if that is the case. More power to him, then, if he is calling attention to these issues. I just hope his solution is not to tear down the walls and throw out the plan books and let the children just "experience" the clasroom!!! LOL

[IndyOp]

16. I am not sure if there are states where kindergarten isn't

available or isn't free if it is available. I know that students in my great state have to pay for their own books and we definitely do not have a free pre-K program.

I teach now - at the college level. I like plan books. I am willing to go off course if that seems to be what should happen with a particular group of students. Still, I like my plan book.

:)

[me b zola]

9. Time for the educational revolution

I have been advocating for years the pooling of all educational funds to create equality in the classroom. That to me goes to the core of the inequities in our education system.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

15. I'll go you one better!

It is time to scrap the entire school district concept. There should be small..very small...facilities within walking distance of homes. Screw busses. These should be k-12. Yes, just like the old fashioned one room school house. Putting thousands of adolescents together in middle or high schools is just asking for disaster. It is unnatural. If you have five or six older kids they learn about younger children, about parenting, and you don't have the same social pressures they face with clicques and all that.

You know what keeps us warehousing kids into monster high schools? FOOTBALL. The communities demand it.

Our whole educational paradigm is skewed.

[IndyOp]

19. Wow - You are a radical!

I would have missed having the sorts of advanced classes that high schoolers can only get when the study body is large -- now by 'large' -- I mean 300-400 students.

I would like to have the high school experience be more 'natural' - though perhaps by putting them in uniforms or by putting them in (rescue me from flames if they come, please) single-sex schools.

Football is not my concern -- couldn't communities sponsor football leagues at the high school level? There are football leagues at the elementary level here.

Our whole educational paradigm is skewed. - Yup.

:shrug:

[TallahasseeGrannie]

21. I won't argue about

single sex schools because I attended a small, denominational Anglican girls' boarding school. There were only about 100 students and it was excellent. Friendships for a lifetime. We were ALL boy crazy but there weren't any boys there to distract us. We weren't embarassed to be smart.

What about (in my radical model) the advanced high school classes could be taken virtually (Florida has an online high school that is very good) OR at a local community college?

I just think that we warehouse kids and we do it because somebody has to watch the kids while the parents work and this is the cheapest way to do it. Education if secondary.

Now, I am a rather jaded teacher...remember that. But I have two grandchildren and I'm giving home schooling serious thought (along with their mom, of course) because of this whole testing nuttiness. These are gifted kids and need more than teaching to the test.

[IndyOp]

34. I think homeschooling is an idea whose time has arrived --

I would love to see elementary kids especially homeschooled -- if parents can get together in cooperatives and split duties that would be great. I do like the idea of online education for high schoolers - or - even better, teachers that travel between schools to teach foreign language or advanced math and science. I teach statistics and I don't yet believe that online can accomplish what I can do with my students in class -- maybe video conference would do as well.

One factoid for you: A year or so back a researcher surveyed US adults to ask them whether they agreed or disagreed with the following statement, "Government is just too complex for me to understand." The difference between home-schooled and public/private schooled people was HUGE -- very few adults who had been home-schooled thought government was too complex to understand, while a sizable majority who had gone to public/private school thought it was too complex. That says *volumes* to me about our educational system.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

22. I won't argue about

single sex schools because I attended a small, denominational Anglican girls' boarding school. There were only about 100 students and it was excellent. Friendships for a lifetime. We were ALL boy crazy but there weren't any boys there to distract us. We weren't embarassed to be smart.

What about (in my radical model) the advanced high school classes could be taken virtually (Florida has an online high school that is very good) OR at a local community college?

I just think that we warehouse kids and we do it because somebody has to watch the kids while the parents work and this is the cheapest way to do it. Education if secondary.

Now, I am a rather jaded teacher...remember that. But I have two grandchildren and I'm giving home schooling serious thought (along with their mom, of course) because of this whole testing nuttiness. These are gifted kids and need more than teaching to the test.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

23. WHAT'S WITH THE DOUBLE POSTING?

I know I didn't hit post twice. I've seen it a lot today.

[Daphne08]

26. "Kozol also advocates an end to the No Child Left Behind testing"

I agree with that!

I don't know much about him (other than the experiments which failed).

[sweetheart]

20. I've seen what he describes in

LAUSD and hawaii. As a junior and high school student in both places,
playing sports and whatnot, visiting many schools... and the ones in
the urban los angeles were memorably the most horrible places i have
ever seen. I'm sure prisons are better maintained.

Both places had extensive gang problems that created such bullying
problems across the schools, that learning was a second priority to
surviving. This was especially true in honolulu city schools.

Its good to hear of a metro where there is "just" segregation... but
there is worse... is a zip code lottery, whomever has the money can
afford the school districts.

In my time, beverly hills high school offered 13 "AP" courses, ones
that offered equivalent college credit. Santa monica, only 4, and most
LA schools, nothing... the money purchased better education, and this
fell so coveniently on lines of old housing apartheid, the untold
history of Los angeles that lies behind riots and unrest in a school
district with 750,000 student.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

24. That is shameful.

completely shameful..as bad as Katrina.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

25. And I am still thinking about this

and just don't understand it. Even if the local school boards are lazy, corrupt and broke..where are the news media? The exposees? The parents? Couldn't the parents get together and get some work done on the weekend?

I understand that time is precious but if we don't have the money we have the other resources...strong backs and motivation.

It just shouldn't happen.

I am doubly grateful I live in a community where it doesn't happen. And there is plenty of poverty in this town. Perhaps it is because the State of FL really controls our finances when it comes to education. Unhandy sometimes, but our property taxes are low. I suppose it is because of tourism, although I'm not completely sure.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

31. The communities where the parents are clueless or apathetic about

education are the ones where the schoolboards are lazy and corrupt.

You will find, by and large, that college towns have excellent school systems, because they have a critical mass of residents who really value learning (i.e. college professors). So do affluent suburbs.

When Northern school systems were desegregated, the flight to the suburbs and to private schools began. I fear that simple racism sent urban schools into a downward spiral, as schools populated mostly by students of color and immigrants seemed less "worthy" of funding by state legislatures and "not worth" funding through increased property taxes, despite the greater expense of educating students whose home background is not as conducive to educational achievement.

I like the idea of small schools, though. You can offer rigorous courses by making them part of the standard curriculum (setting high standards and providing a lot of individual help for those who can't keep up). You can also offer open enrollment (statewide in Minnesota), so that if, say, School A offers Astronomy and School B offers Geology as its optional science, a student in School A's district who prefers Geology can transfer to School B.

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. Give him another chance

Open classrooms was just a fad. He has written some great stuff in the last 30 years. Kozol understands our kids and knows what they need.

His #1 message is to FUND our schools, and do it fairly.

[ulysses]

8. recommended and

:kick:ed

[Tsiyu]

13. and ulysses would be one American who truly understands

How is that beautiful new son doing? :hi:

[ulysses]

17. very well, thanks!

:hi:

[AwakeAtLast]

18. I posted this link in the Education Forum just today

http://www.nea.org/neatodayextra/kozol.html

Lots of good information to add to yours. Thanks for posting!

:hi:

[Karmadillo]

33. Thank you for your post.

Very interesting information.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. Sounds a lot like his book Savage Inequalities

which is a must read for anyone who wants to understand school financing.

[GRLMGC]

30. This is so important

The inequality between education in poor and rich neighborhoods is ridiculous. Considering how funding for schools is derived, the inequalities are inherent. This reminds me our situation in CA. LAUSD schools have no funding and the funding is being cut even more. How are schools supposed to improve if education is continually on the attack by the right wing? It makes me so angry.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

32. Perhaps you have hit on why

we don't have this problem so much in my area. Our district is huge and includes very wealthy and very poor people, but all schools are funded in the same way and the same amount. I guess sometimes big, centralized bureacracy has its benefits.