Response to Shame of the Nation book by Jonathan Kozol

Chapters 1-6 Shame of the Nation
After reading the first six chapters of Shame of the Nation you seemingly felt the way the students were treated while reading the text. I felt that I was there as a student or a guardian angel floating around the room. The primary thesis of the book is the education in the black community and a white individual seemingly trying to make a change in education. What the other wants the reader to remember is the many struggles that students and teachers deal with within education. The author seems to want readers to understand that the education system is not perfect and that there has been many changes made in the past and there is many more to come. These six chapters as future teacher and faculty makes you want to make a difference in a student’s life. I definitely agree with the disciplinary action in the schools then as far as whippings. What I didn’t like or disagreed with is where it stated on page three that, an older teacher would dip the whip in vinegar to implement more pain two the students. Jonathan Kozol stated on page 99 it stated that children of all social classes ought to have “some work experience,” I disagree with this because in high school these days students have stressful other problems dealing with exit testing, final exams, and the SAT, and ACT. The students need to use high school to prepare for college and learn everything there is to know before attending college.
These four paragraphs in the book standout to me about the direction the book was heading.
“Equality itself-equality alone-is now, it seems, the article of faith to which increasing numbers of the principals of inner-city public schools subscribe. And some who are perhaps most realistic do not even ask for, or expect, complete equality, which seems beyond the realm of probability for many years to come, but look instead for only a sufficiency of means- “adequacy” is the legal term most often used today—by which to win those practical and finite victories that may appear to be within their reach. Higher standards, higher expectations, are insistently demanded of these urban principals, and of their teachers and the stuethical respects appear to be expected of the dominant society that isolates these children in unequal institutions.” Page 34 chapter 1
“Teachers working in a school like this have little chance to draw upon their own inventiveness or normal conversational abilities. In the reading curriculum in use within the school, for instance, teachers told me they had been forewarned to steer away from verbal deviations or impromptu bits of conversation since each passage of instruction needed to be timed and any digression from the printed plans could cause them problems if a school official or curriculum director happened to be in the building at the time. Supervisors from the organization that designed and marketed the scripted reading program came into the classroom also to police the way that it was being used “police” being the word the teachers used in speaking of these periodic visitations.” Chapter 2 Page 71-72
“Advocates for school to work do not, in general, describe it as a race-specific project but tend instead to emphasize the worth of linking academic programs to the world of work for children of all backgrounds and insisting that suburban children too should be prepared in school for marketplace demands, that children of all social classes ought to have “some work experience” in high school, for example, But the attempt at even-handedness in speaking of the ways that this idea might be applied has been misleading from the start. In most suburban schools, the school to work idea, if educators even speak of it at all, is little more than seemly decoration on the outer edges of a liberal curriculum. In many urban schools, by contrast, it has come to be the energizing instrument of almost every aspect of instruction.” Chapter 4 page 99
“This is not the case with high stakes standardized examinations, the results of which supplant and overrule the judgments of a teacher. “What worries me most,” writes Deborah Meier, “is that in the name of objectivity and science,” the heavy reliance upon high states testing has led teachers “to distrust their ability to see and observe” the children they are teaching and derive conclusions based upon their observation.” “For a teacher who sees a kid day in and day out to admit that she won’t know how well he reads.” Until the day the test scores are delivered by an outside agency “is not good news.” She says.
Advocate- one that argues for a cause; a supporter or defender. To speak, plead or argue in favor of something or someone.
Segregation- The policy or practice of separating people of different races, classes, or ethnic groups. As in schools, housing, and public or commercial facilities, especially as a form of discrimination.
Deprive- to take something away, to keep from possessing or enjoying.
This book reminded me of education today because there is still issues that schools all over the country deal with that this book to talked about in much detail. The three major points are race, testing examination, and budgets in schools. These three things are something I was aware of when I was attending public school. There are still students today that have problems with all three of these issues that come out in the news, newspapers, and magazines. These three issues will continue the only thing that teachers and parents can do is hope to erase these issues from schools and control these issues in a sense that they are not keeping kids from learning.
Does standardized testing really show what a student has learned throughout school? Is standardized testing needed in schools?