March 25, 2021
In this week’s chapters; 7, and 8 of The Shame of the Nation, Jonathan Kozol introduces more problems with inner-city schools, and gives his take on the topic of “school reform”. In chapter seven specifically, he talks about the overpopulation of inner-city schools and their effects on school success. He argues that the physical appearance of a school impedes the ability of students to dream big. In chapter eight, titled “False Promises”, Kozol spearheads the topic of school reform and argues that for way too long, schools have been overly optimistic and ignorant of the historically systemic setbacks that need to be addressed. Throughout chapter eight, he makes it clear that modern school segregation is built off a snowball effect of “cookie-cutter” reform projects that despite sounding promising, actually increase the disparity between “good” schools and “bad” schools.
This past weekend, I had a fairly long discussion with my father about the current state of our segregated school systems. We talked on and on about the causes and the effects and the overwhelming complexity of race, privilege, and the inequities associated with them. Kozol’s chapter about false promises made me think about what my dad said, which was that the layers and layers of issues that stem from America’s racial past have created this complex issue of school segregation.
In the modern era, all of these multi-faceted issues that come with school segregation call for reform. Considering that just a couple of weeks ago, there was a lawsuit in New York regarding the prejudice of the school system, I’d say we haven’t seen nearly enough improvement in this area. And after reading this chapter, I don’t think it’s from lack of effort. Chapter eight highlights the fact that we as a society have certainly attempted to fix this issue. Kozol cites various programs such as “Higher Horizons”, “Operation Counterpoise”, and “America 2000” as projects that were incited to turnaround the atmosphere and performance of our inner-city schools. Despite these projects being enacted, much of the improvement in the schools was brief.
Throughout the chapter, Kozol seems to poke fun at the notion that fixing schools is an easy task. This can be seen in the first pages of the chapter where he cites several books and article headlines that tend to oversimplify the school system model. Examples include “How to Fix America’s Schools”, and "What Works", a 66-page booklet that lists 41 attributes of a successful school” (194). His main thesis seems to be that there is no “easy fix” to a big problem. He writes “I don’t believe a good school or a good school system can be built on miracles or on the stunning interventions of dramatically original and charismatic men or women” (200). He suggests that a person with a distinguished background can benefit the school in the short term, but historically, the pressure associated with taking on such a difficult task has been one that is very short-lived. Kozol cites numerous occurrences where this idea has been proven. For example, “Fernandez’s successor, another Hispanic educator with a good track record prior to arriving in New York, was welcomed with high expectations but resigned within two years after a siege of hostile treatment by the city’s mayor. His successor, Rudy Crew, a black administrator who was also greeted with a chorus of applause on his arrival in New York, survived in office for four years” (197). I think that the central premise of Kozol’s argument in this chapter is that we as a nation have failed to seek long-term solutions. On page 200, he makes the statement that we seek for a “hero principal” who will save the day. Through this outlook, we as a nation have continuously built up this false hope that within a matter of months to a couple of years, a principal can fix an issue that has been stirring silently for decades.
In this week’s chapters; 7, and 8 of The Shame of the Nation, Jonathan Kozol introduces more problems with inner-city schools, and gives his take on the topic of “school reform”. In chapter seven specifically, he talks about the overpopulation of inner-city schools and their effects on school success. He argues that the physical appearance of a school impedes the ability of students to dream big. In chapter eight, titled “False Promises”, Kozol spearheads the topic of school reform and argues that for way too long, schools have been overly optimistic and ignorant of the historically systemic setbacks that need to be addressed. Throughout chapter eight, he makes it clear that modern school segregation is built off a snowball effect of “cookie-cutter” reform projects that despite sounding promising, actually increase the disparity between “good” schools and “bad” schools.
This past weekend, I had a fairly long discussion with my father about the current state of our segregated school systems. We talked on and on about the causes and the effects and the overwhelming complexity of race, privilege, and the inequities associated with them. Kozol’s chapter about false promises made me think about what my dad said, which was that the layers and layers of issues that stem from America’s racial past have created this complex issue of school segregation.
In the modern era, all of these multi-faceted issues that come with school segregation call for reform. Considering that just a couple of weeks ago, there was a lawsuit in New York regarding the prejudice of the school system, I’d say we haven’t seen nearly enough improvement in this area. And after reading this chapter, I don’t think it’s from lack of effort. Chapter eight highlights the fact that we as a society have certainly attempted to fix this issue. Kozol cites various programs such as “Higher Horizons”, “Operation Counterpoise”, and “America 2000” as projects that were incited to turnaround the atmosphere and performance of our inner-city schools. Despite these projects being enacted, much of the improvement in the schools was brief.
Throughout the chapter, Kozol seems to poke fun at the notion that fixing schools is an easy task. This can be seen in the first pages of the chapter where he cites several books and article headlines that tend to oversimplify the school system model. Examples include “How to Fix America’s Schools”, and "What Works", a 66-page booklet that lists 41 attributes of a successful school” (194). His main thesis seems to be that there is no “easy fix” to a big problem. He writes “I don’t believe a good school or a good school system can be built on miracles or on the stunning interventions of dramatically original and charismatic men or women” (200). He suggests that a person with a distinguished background can benefit the school in the short term, but historically, the pressure associated with taking on such a difficult task has been one that is very short-lived. Kozol cites numerous occurrences where this idea has been proven. For example, “Fernandez’s successor, another Hispanic educator with a good track record prior to arriving in New York, was welcomed with high expectations but resigned within two years after a siege of hostile treatment by the city’s mayor. His successor, Rudy Crew, a black administrator who was also greeted with a chorus of applause on his arrival in New York, survived in office for four years” (197). I think that the central premise of Kozol’s argument in this chapter is that we as a nation have failed to seek long-term solutions. On page 200, he makes the statement that we seek for a “hero principal” who will save the day. Through this outlook, we as a nation have continuously built up this false hope that within a matter of months to a couple of years, a principal can fix an issue that has been stirring silently for decades.
In reading chapters seven and eight, I’m reminded of the notion that our pressure-cooker culture has resulted in a recurring cycle of temporary success stories. One of our major setbacks is that we tend to commercialize the process of reform and put the future result on a pedestal. In doing so, we have failed the children of the underprivileged, leaving them in schools ridden with high turnover rates.
Works Cited
Kozol, Jonathan. The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. New York, Three Rivers Press, 2005.
School reform is never easy, even in "good" schools. Do you think that part of Kozol's argument is that too often such reform is attempted from the top down as opposed to from the bottom up?
ReplyDeleteYes I think that he implies that a big reason why many of the programs failed was because they aimed to reform education as a whole, tackling it from the top down. I think that what Kozol really wanted was a program that's primary goal was to ensure poorer communities had a solid education. Once that goal was accomplished, scaling it upwards and modifying the education system entirely would've been more practical. I think that the "right of transfer" concept that he discussed in the chapter was an example of this, as it was a program that was intended to help poorer communities, but failed to do so due to the fact that it wasn't given enough attention.
Delete