Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Essay

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Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America

Jonathan Kozol's The Shame of the Nation exposes the ways in which the school desegregation achieved by the civil rights movement has been dismantled since the late 1980's. Exploring Brown v. Board of Education and its impact, Kozol also examines the widespread successful efforts to dismantle that case's effects, the crippling results of school segregation and the sometimes harmful attempts to overcome segregation. Kozol also examines some ways in which desegregation can be achieved, chiefly through a civil rights movement that can also use state and federal legislatures and courts. Kozol's book reveals an alarming situation, though some of his conclusions seem extreme.

Body

Themes

Chapter 1 - Dishonoring the Dead (pp.13-38)

Chapter 1 discusses the Supreme Court 1954 decision, Brown v. The Board of Education.

Thurgood Marshall, who gave his opinion for that decision, said that separate-but-equal schools are not possible and that school segregation on the basis of race deprives minority children of equal opportunities. That decision led to the racial desegregation of U.S. schools in the late 1950's until the mid-1980's. Since that time, the Reagan Administration and the Supreme Court have dismantled desegregation and society allows it without mentioning racial segregation. The lip service that is paid to Thurgood Marshall's words while our society deliberately segregates schools is dishonoring Marshall, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And Rosa Parks, who are dead, and other people who fought so hard for desegregation. The people who deliberately create school segregation call it progressive school reform but it is really racist. Kozol uses examples like Pineapple and her sister Briana, from the South Bronx, to show that Thurgood Marshall was right. Kozol uses Pineapple throughout the book to prove his points. Pineapple and Briana are nonwhite, closed off from whites in their lives and taught in segregated schools with inexperienced teachers who leave quickly. As the years went by, Pineapple's school became progressively worse. Also, some segregated schools pretend that the message of desegregation is still alive but that is a lie; some of the worst educational situations because of segregation and poverty exist in schools named after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks and Thurgood Marshall.

ii. Chapter 2 - Hitting Them Hardest When They're Small (pp.39-62)

Chapter 2 discusses the ways in which society requires that small nonwhite children in racially segregated schools be heroic in order to succeed. Segregated children in the South Bronx are in schools that do not have gyms, outdoor playgrounds, enough room for all the students, adequate libraries, art and music, adequate medical staffs, enough desks for children, roofs secure from leaking, etc. And they know it. They know that other schools have those things but their schools do not have those things. Young nonwhite children in segregated schools also have teachers who have much lower salaries; therefore, the teachers tend to have less experience and seniority. In addition, far less money is paid per pupil for the education of children in segregated schools than is paid for the educations of white students. What is more, white children tend to get preschool while nonwhite children get less and less preschool and Head Start serves fewer and fewer minority children. With all this unfairness based on segregation, third grade nonwhite students must take high-stakes standardized performance tests. Society is demanding that very young nonwhite children be heroic when the deck is stacked against them and they know it is stacked against them.

iii. Chapter 3 - The Ordering Regime (pp.63-88)

Chapter 3 discusses some of the ways in which school administrators and teachers in racially segregated schools have tried to compensate for the inequality by using strategies that actually hurt the students. Some principals and teachers do not expect the racial segregation of schools to change, so they develop strategies to adapt. They emphasize: raising test scores; strict policies that will not allow students to be promoted to higher grades or graduate unless they meet rigid requirements; and conformity. The attitude of the administrations and teachers is that if the students do exactly what the administration and teachers say, then the students will do it right but if the students do not follow what the administration and teachers say, then the students will do it wrong. Some of these tough systems name learning processes and achievements, such as: authentic writing, active listening, accountable talking and zero noise. These rigid measures are aimed at passing state tests, they sacrifice true education and they make the students anxious.

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They also label the students and even teach the students to label each other according to whether test results put them at level 1 -- the lowest reading level -- through level 4 -- the highest reading level.

iv. Chapter 4 - Preparing Minds for Markets (pp.89-108)

Chapter 4 discusses the strong influence on segregated schools by corporations that want employees to be team players. From kindergarten on, students are taught to think of the jobs they might want and as the students get older, they are pushed to tailor their learning to the jobs they might want. Kozol says that college is never mentioned. Instead, these students are taught to have lower expectations than higher education and to focus on being ready for work when they are through with school. Also, education is treated as though it is a thing that a person can own and sell instead of a lifelong process. These measures severely lower the horizons of students and teach them tunnel vision toward getting and keeping a job. Education is supposed to teach skills that will be useful in a job but education is supposed to be more than that; it is supposed to teach students the process of learning and teach them to have higher expectations than just a job.

v. Chapter 5 - The Road to Rome (pp.109-134)

Chapter 5 also talks about the school tests given to children but stresses how the strong focus on those tests lowers the quality of education. Rome is the test and if the road made up of educational lessons does not lead to Rome, at least some administrators in segregated schools are not interested in those lessons. They insist on uniform teaching that does not allow flexibility and freedom in education. These administrators are so determined to raise test scores that history, geography, art, music and recess are not allowed because they will not help the students get better test scores. History, geography, art and music are all part of a quality education, so eliminating them means lowering the quality of education. Also, nonwhite children in segregated schools have such limited resources in their schools that they do not get quality educations and will probably fail the tests. These tests, that start when the children are in kindergarten and continue through the grades, can create anxiety in very young children and can force them to repeat grades, which makes it likelier that they will drop out of school.

vi. Chapter 6 - A Hardening of Lines (pp.135-160)

Chapter 6 discusses the way in which the segregation of white from nonwhite that is started when the children are very young students becomes increasingly worse in our society. The hardening of the lines between white and nonwhite is shown in the competition for New York City's best schools: white, educated, aware parents know that children must apply to those better schools a year before they start school; nonwhite, uneducated, unaware, sometime foreign language-speaking parents do not know about that 1-year requirement. As a result, the white children's parents are able to help their children get into better schools while the nonwhite children's parents are not able to help them get into better schools. The privileged educational system of whites and the opportunities they are given in life are linked, just as the inferior educational system of segregated nonwhites and the lack of opportunities in life are linked. What is more, the white parents who provide better educational and life opportunities for their children resist the desegregation that will share better education and life opportunities with nonwhite children. They believe that sharing will lower the quality of education and limit the life opportunities for their white children.

vii. Chapter 7 - Excluding Beauty (pp.161-186)

Chapter 7 discusses the fact that many segregated schools lack different types of physical and functional beauty found in quality schools and the lack badly affects students. Many segregated schools lack the beauty of computers, pleasant surroundings, structurally sound buildings, air conditioning, heat, sufficient room for all the students, desks, chairs, textbooks and enough room in advanced placement classes, among other things that should be found in a quality school. This lack of beauty makes it tougher for students to learn and makes students unhappy to be there, less likely to take advanced placement classes, more likely to take lowbrow classes that just happen to be available, more likely to skip school and more likely to drop out of school.

viii. Chapter….....

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