Jonathan Kozol is a Harvard University graduate and also a Rhodes scholar who wrote on his investigations on schools all over America. Savage Inequalities goes into depth of Kozol’s experiences of the inequalities he observed between the race and class. Hr came up with drop out rates, school funding, SAT scores, frequent absence’s among students and teachers, reading and math levels, and also the physical well being of the schools. All of his observations led him to the same conclusion, racism still exists, and he feels that the biggest object causing the separation is money.
While reading Savage Inequalities, some of the things Kozol was saying felt like it was just repetition because o how we have basically already talked about the many ways our education system is failing. Basically Kozol blows the lid off of two school in the same district but one is in a wealthier neighborhood then the other, how the one in the wealthier neighborhood gets more funding, even though both schools are public. I thought it was interesting reading about Kozol’s first teaching experience. Even though it was almost 50 years ago, the effects of an over populated school are still the same. He did not even have a classroom for his 4th grade class. He realized that after the first test he gave how below par his students were. In such a populated setting it is hard to stay focused on every student and it is very easy to let things like this get through.
Although he really doesn’t talk about a way to fix it and only highlights the negative’s in the education system, I do feel that there is a solution for all of this. I don’t know why when money is needed it gets cut from the school first. Funding should not be cut from our school system because it builds our leaders and thinkers for tomorrow. There is plenty of money in other places and our young generation should not have to be the ones to suffer every time.
