shame of the nation part 2

Countdown Paper:
The Shame of the Nation Chapters 7 and 12

5 Big Picture Sentences
In these two chapters, Kozol seems to be almost qualifying his previous expression of disdain for the American education system. He, of course, still writes with the purpose of exposing the dichotomy of white and black in education, but in these chapters, he mentions a few big exceptions: schools he calls “the treasured places.” These are places in which teachers are qualified and knowledgeable human beings, and treat their students as such. They take time to create relationships, investigate, and “do certain things with the children for no other reason than to make the classroom happy.” Writing about schools where childhood still exists seems to be Kozol’s way of giving hope for the future, but he is careful to say that it rests in the hands of teachers, “the lowliest of bureaucrats.”

4 Key Passages
pg. 163 “There is no misery index for the children of apartheid education. There ought to be; we measure almost every other aspect of the lives they lead in school… You do not find the answers to these questions in reports about achievement levels, scientific methods of accountability, or structural revisions in the modes of governance. Documents like these don’t speak of happiness.”

pg. 287 “… but in their temperaments and in their moral disposition many also stand outside that box, because they are aware of its existence, and this sense of double-vision, being part of something and aware of what it is at the same time, regenerates the energy they bring with them each morning to the very little place in which they use what gifts they have to make the schoolday good and whole and sometimes beautiful for children.”

pg. 297 “Longings of the heart, not merely mercenary motivations, are at stake in this career.”

pg. 299 “Teachers and principals should not permit the beautiful profession they have chosen to be redefined by those who know far less than they about the hearts of children.”

3 Key Terms
“barracks classroom” – the old, rundown trailers across and down the street from the main campus of an Oklahoma elementary school which serve over 350 students
“multiple intelligences” – theory created by Howard Gardner, which “emphasized the interrelationship of art and science with arithmetic and reading and the other elements of elementary school instruction”
“continuous” school year – the year-round calendar created to stagger the population of schoolchildren so that at any point, only ¾ of the children were in school

2 Connections
On page 297, Kozol talks about the connections that some teachers sometimes are able to create with their students. He says that sometimes they become so “beautifully connected” that the teacher asks to “loop” with them for another year. This reminds me of the movie Freedom Writers. It also makes me think of an inner-city school I visited called Yellowstone Academy in which teachers automatically “loop” with their student for one extra year. I think this is actually probably a good idea in tough schools like this in which it takes time to establish your credibility and create trust with students.

The teacher who mentioned doing things in the class just for the purpose of making the classroom “happy” made me laugh. My family has always made fun of my desire to make everything pretty and happy. They like to call it “study pretty.” My dad said once that if I was in charge of some sort of mission dropping supplies over a war-torn area, I would distribute gingham file folders and purple notepads and polka dotted pencils, not food and water. I don’t know about that exactly, but I do really love making my surroundings and my work supplies lovely.

1 Question
My question is much like Obie’s, who said, “Come on now! Like – hello? We live in a rich country? Like the richest country in the world? Hello?” Now that we know, what are we going to do about it?