This weeks Kozol readings on chapter 8 and 9 seem to mirror a lot of what we deal with every day in education. In chapter 8, Kozol goes on and on about the various programs that were instituted with the purpose of bettering schools, fighting desegregation, and raising standards. Also, he goes through a long list of people, specifically in the New York City School System, who were “heralded” into a top education job by the press. However these potential saviors of the education system didn’t deliver as promised. This just has a very ironic tone to it. How many times do we hear about a “revolutionary” new program that is going to change the face of the modern education system? How many times do we hear about new educational leadership who are going to change the face of our modern education system? We hear it all the time and much like the portrayal Kozol gives us, we have yet to see a lot of promising results. Instead of promising results we got NCLB and excessive use of standardized tests.
In chapter 9 Kozol poses the extremely loaded question of what we need to do to change these realities. This chapter is disheartening in the fact that so many educators feel a sense of hopelessness when faced with problems because they feel as though they have little means of recourse. This chapter also has a plug against charters schools as being just as racially divided and unfairly constructed as inner-city schools. The chapter continues with its “uplifting” discussion on a variety of failed attempts to desegregated and provide equity in the schools. (An example of which is the busing fiasco) The chapter concludes with Kozol suggesting that we need to start looking elsewhere for solutions to the problems in education. I would agree with him whole-heartedly given the fact that a lot of what is being done by our current education system is not working.
