Exam One: The Shame of the Nation Essay

Jonathan Kozol - The Shame of the Nation: Essay 1

You have been appointed by President Obama to serve as a teacher representative on the “U.S. Commission for Improving the Quality of Education Opportunity for Marginalized Children in the United States.” In particular, President Obama is curious about your opinions on Jonathan Kozol’s book entitled The Shame of the Nation. The President has asked you to summarize Kozol’s primary theses as represented in the book, support or refute Kozol’s claims of “Apartheid Schooling” in the U.S., and provide your own recommendations on improving the quality of education opportunity for marginalized children in the United States. President Obama has asked you to submit to him a letter that is no longer than 3 pages addressing these issues and providing specific citations (i.e., book, notes, documents) to support your answers.

Mr. President:
It is a great honor to serve on the U.S. Commission for Improving the Quality of Education Opportunity for Marginalized Children in the United States. My thoughts concerning the education of marginalized children have been greatly influenced by Jonathan Kozol’s book The Shame of the Nation (2005), and I will be referencing this work in my reply. This text focuses on the inequalities that exist in America today. In fact, Kozol said that his goal in writing this book was to “unlock the chains” that separated children from the American mainstream (p. 6). His research is particularly interesting and poignant because he has visited schools all over the country and formed lasting friendships with many students in order to write this book, and because he himself taught in segregated schools when he was a young man.
America, the country lauded as the “land of opportunity,” for centuries the destination of countless immigrants searching for freedom, equality, and the chance to make something of themselves, truly has an ugly secret: an apartheid schooling system, segregated by race, socioeconomic level, and class. We are willing to fight wars in order to spread democracy abroad, yet our own school system is anything but democratic. Immediately contradicting the Brown vs. Board ruling and the 14th Amendment, children who live in U.S. ghettoes receive an inherently unequal education from that which schoolchildren in affluent suburban areas receive. In the neighborhoods in which Kozol observed, “residential segregation was a permanent reality” (p. 7), a result of “white flight” – a phenomenon which describes the movement of those who can afford it away from urban areas and ghettoes, creating the dichotomy of well-off suburban areas just miles away from the devastation of the projects. Since public schools are funded by the taxes of their surrounding neighborhoods, of course this economic discrepancy translates into major inequalities in the schools.
In The Shame of the Nation, Kozol discussed the disparities in physical school buildings, quality of teachers, curriculum taught, parent fundraising, availability of quality preschools and other special schools, and programs and courses offered. In looking at each of these inequalities, the real question addressed will be: what is the worth of each child in these situations?
In Kozol’s introduction, he recalls the conditions in which he first taught; two fourth grade classes, a drama group, and a class of girls learning to sew all shared an auditorium (p. 3). His own experience does not differ dramatically from others’. Aside from basic maintenance and cleanliness, many of these schools are actually unsanitary and hazardous. At the 75th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles, a letter had to be sent home because there were rats, exposed asbestos, and chipping lead-based paint on the campus (p. 172). There is also a major difference in available resources. One Sacramento student said that in computer class, “we sit there and talk about what we would be doing if we have computers” (p. 171). Juxtapose this with high schools with multiple computer labs filled with the most recent technology. Are not the children in that Sacramento school worth as much as the children in these schools?
Another key problem is the quality of teachers. One of the hardest obstacles is recruiting good teachers, especially when schools in which it would be easier to teach can offer them so much more money and job security. In troubled schools in need of the best and brightest teachers, teachers are demoted from their role of cultivating learning to merely reading off scripted lessons plans. “So,” Kozol concludes, “a curriculum that was imposed, in part, to compensate for staffing needs of schools that had a hard time in recruiting teachers ends up by driving out precisely those well-educated men and women whom school systems have worked so hard to attract” (p. 85). This curriculum, especially the Skinnerian Approach with its strange, silent signals mentioned in chapter 3, creates zombies rather than individuals who can think deeply for themselves. Kozol makes the interesting point that in these schools, “hope must be constructed therapeutically because so much of it has been destroyed by the conditions… in which we have placed these children” (p. 37), whereas hope exists naturally “in suburban schools where the potential of most children is assumed” (p. 36).
Some of the most alarming consequences of this apartheid schooling system are the dramatically different tracks offered to students: academic tracks for those children deemed to have worth, who will go to college and become successful, and vocational tracks for those children who need to be realistic and learn a trade because they will never amount to anything other than, hopefully, a skilled worker. In one elementary school in which managerial skills were emphasized to a shocking extent, the principal responded to Kozol’s questioning by saying, “Even if you have a felony arrest… we want you to understand that you can be a manager someday” (p. 93). These unbelievably low expectations carry over to the high schools, too. Mireya, a student at Fremont High School, dreams of being a doctor, but she was forced to take sewing, hairdressing, and “Life Skills” classes (p. 179). Mireya confided in Kozol, “I did not need sewing either. I knew how to sew. My mother is a seamstress in a factory. I’m trying to go to college. I don’t need to sew to go to college… I hoped for something else” (p. 180). Surely an honors student in suburban America would not be put into classes like these, and most definitely not against her will.
These major discrepancies are simply the most noticeable of the many perversions of democracy in America’s current school system. While many of us can try to ignore it, those who are living it cannot. In a conversation with Kozol, Noreen Connell said, “When minority parents ask for something better for their kids… ‘the assumption is that these are parents who can be discounted. These are kids that we don’t value’” (p. 43). And when we try to smooth over these issues, we are confirming her sad statement. We must figure out the worth of every child, and act accordingly.
Sincerely,
Amber Hatchett

Countdown Paper:Race Matters Chapter 5 – 8

5 Big Picture Sentences
In this section, Cornel West continues his deliberate yet uncomfortable conversation about the problems in American society regarding race. In chapter 5, West says that affirmative action, although not perfect, is certainly deterring some racial and sexual discrimination. In the following chapter, he touches on the enmity between blacks and Jews, first giving some background knowledge about the brief period when there was some unity, and then the black Anti-Semitism that followed. Chapter 7 touches on black sexuality, which West considers crucial to solving race problems in America. Finally, West concludes by taking a look at Malcolm X’s good motivations and the ways in which he was blinded by trying to channel black rage.

4 Key Passages
“As members of such an economy, we have all been programmed to respond to the human differences between us with fear and loathing and to handle that difference in one of three ways: ignore it, and if that is not possible, copy it if we think it is dominant, or destroy it if we think it is subordinate.” – Audre Lorde, page 93
“The Afro-Americanization of white youth – given the disproportionate black role in popular music and athletics – has put white kids in closer contact with their own bodies and facilitated more human interaction with people. Listening to Motown records in the sixties or dancing to hip hop music in the nineties may not lead one to question the sexual myths of black women and men, but when white and black kids buy the same billboard hits and laud the same athletic heroes the result is often a shared cultural space where some human interaction takes place.” – page 121
“This demythologizing of black sexuality is crucial for black America because much of black self-hatred and self-contempt has to do with the refusal of many black Americans to love their own black bodies – especially their black noses, hips, lips, and hair.” – page 122
“That is why Malcolm X’s articulation of black rage was not directed first and foremost at white America. Rather, Malcolm believed that if black people felt the love that motivated that rage, the love would produce a psychic conversion in black people; they would affirm themselves as human beings, no longer viewing their bodies, minds, and souls through white lenses, and believing themselves capable of taking control of their own destinies.” – page 136

3 Key Terms
what it means to be “black” or “Jewish” in ethical terms – does involve looking at group interest, but goes further to a “higher moral ground where serious discussions about democracy and justice determine how we define ourselves and our politics and help us formulate strategies and tactics to sidestep the traps of tribalism and chauvinism” (page 109)

“xenophobia” – the fear of people different from you

“cultural hybridity” – the complex mixture of African, European, and Amerindian elements of modern African Americans, “something that is new and black in the modern world,” which was feared by Malcolm X because he wanted to be able to channel black rage into Manichean divisions, such as male and female, black and white; it downplayed the vicious character of white supremacy and linked the destinies of black and white people in such a way that made black freedom possible (pages 144-145)

2 Connections
The chapter about black sexuality reminded me of both of the videos we were supposed to watch for last week’s class. The short film made up of young black females talking about society’s standards for beauty was very interesting; I never knew about “lighter” black skin being seen as more beautiful, and I thought this racism between members of the same race to be fascinating and terribly sad. Similarly, the clips of the black preschoolers identifying the white baby doll as “good” and pretty,” and the black baby doll as “bad” were tragic. This experiment definitely begs the question, where are these children picking up this message?
I experienced a kind of disconnection in the last chapter. I was slightly confused by the way that West seemed to be idealizing Malcolm X, because in discussions about his legacy in my classes and with my parents, he was always portrayed as a bad man, the opposite of everything good that Martin Luther King, Jr. stood for. I have always associated violence, hatred, and ignorance with his name, so it caught my eye when West put him on such a pedestal. The concluding sentences of the book say, “Only if we are as willing as Malcolm X to grow and confront the new challenges posed by the black rage of our day will we take the black freedom struggle to a new and higher level. The future of this country may well depend on it,” which definitely made me think about Malcolm X in a new light.

1 Question
West stated on page 120 that “everyone knows it is virtually impossible to talk candidly about race without talking about sex.” Why is this so?

Race Matters through Chapters 4

5 Big Picture Sentences
In his book Race Matters, Cornel West sheds some light on the complex problem of race in America. He explains both the liberal view that more governmental intervention is necessary and the conservative behaviorist view that says that the way black people live needs to change. West, however, thinks that nihilism is the most important element in the problem; what black America needs is “cultural revitalization and moral regeneration.” He goes on to analyze what he calls “the crisis of black leadership,” looking at the reason for this lack of black leadership, the different types of political and intellectual leadership, and what must be done to fix it. Lastly, he looks at what caused the rise of black conservatism in America and offers a well-rounded look at its pros and cons.

4 Key Passages
pg 38 – “The fundamental aim of this undermining and dismantling is to replace racial reasoning with moral reasoning, to understand the black freedom struggle not as an affair of skin pigmentation and racial phenotype but rather as a matter of ethical principles and wise politics…”

pg. 53 – “You don’t stick a knife in a man’s back nine inches and then pull it out six inches and say you’re making progress.” – Malcolm X

pg 73 – “It is, indeed, one of the basic moral blindspots of American conservatism that its intellectual and leadership energy have never been focussed in a proactive way on America’s racial-caste legacy. This represents a fundamental moral crisis of modern American conservatism… On the other hand, American conservatives have, throughout this century, often embraced freedom movements elsewhere in the world… but always firmly resisting a proactive embrace of the black American civil rights movement as a bona fide freedom movement fully worthy of their support.” – Martin Kilson

pg. 82 – “White racism, though pernicious and potent, cannot fully explain the socioeconomic position of the majority of black Americans. The crisis of black liberalism is the result of its failure to put forward a realistic response to the changes in the economy.”

3 Key Terms
Nihilism – “the lived experience of coping with a life of horrifying meaninglessness, hopelessness, and (most important) lovelessnesss” (pg 22-3)

blackness – “either the perennial possibility of white supremacist abuse or the distinct styles and dominant modes of expression found in black cultures and communities” pg 43

humility – “the fruit of inner security and wise maturity. To be humble is to be so sure of one’s self and one’s mission that one can forego calling excessive attention to one’s self and status.” (pg 59); necessary for a black political leader

2 Connections
On page 24, West is asking what has happened to create this crisis of race in America today. He asks, “What has changed? What went wrong? The bitter irony of integration?” This immediately made me think of what we had read in The Shame of the Nation, especially the chapter Kozol called “Dishonoring the Dead.”

Recently in American Educational Thought we discussed different historical schools of thought concerning the education of African Americans. This was actually very helpful in reading the chapter about leadership, where West mentioned both Washington and DuBois. On page 64, he criticized “race-distancing elitists,” saying that they saw themselves as “the talented tenth.”

1 Question
West made the point that the problem does not lie with African Americans; it lies in “the flaws of the American society” (pg. 6). And just as Martin Kilson said, we love making projects out of other people’s freedom. Why haven’t we fixed the problem under our noses? The one we created?