The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America
By:
Jonathan Kozol
Buy it now at Amazon.com!
Lowest New Price: $3.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5
Publisher: Crown Publishers
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
The Shame of the Nation Review - The Shame of the Nation by Jonathan Kozol, tells the story of how apartheid schooling has returned to America and is strongly rooted in inner-city areas. Kozol refers to an apartheid school as a school in the inner-city with a student body that is 98 to 100 percent black and or Hispanic. Kozol explores schools located throughout the country and exposes shocking teaching styles such as the "Skinnerian Approach," which was originally developed for use in prisons and rehabilitation programs. This approach uses strict rules and complete control to teach the children and it has led to many school's creating silent lunches and recesses, if the school has recess at all. Kozol also talks about unqualified teachers, high teacher turnover rates, poor building conditions, and unequal funding when inner-city schools are compared to suburban schools.
Kozol is a retired school teacher from Boston who started teaching in the 1960's. He brings a unique perspective into the book because he has seen what schooling was like during the civil right movement and how it has evolved to its current state. Kozol also builds strong creditability and a sense of trustworthiness because he uses hands on research to build his arguments and as he states "You have to do what children do and breathe the air children breathe . I don't think that there is any other way to find out what the lives that children lead in school are really like"(Kozol, 163).
Throughout this book Kozol does a great job of exposing segregated and unequal schools; however, his solutions to this problem are inadequate and they do not address the underlying causes. He proposes solutions that will only help a few select students in apartheid schools. His solutions if implemented would become very costly and would reduce the quality of education as a whole. For instance his solution for inter-district integration programs, which would send urban children to suburban schools and suburban children would be sent to urban schools. Does not seem like it would be very effective in the long term at improving inner-city schools.
But, Kozol's solutions are the only weak part of his book and I would recommend anyone who has the time to read this book, to do it. You wont be disappointed and you will gain tremendous knowledge about the American school system.
Customer Review: 2 out of 5
Well, he's good at something... - Kozol does something extraordinarily well in this book, and that is to point out all that is going wrong with our schools. There's a point, though, when we must stop agonizing over what is wrong with the system, and make some real proposals on how to make things better. Anyone is capable of doing what Kozol did in this book, which is to simply point out the many pitfalls of our schools. In order for this to be considered a good book, he needs to complete the circle and make some recommendations about how to fix it. Simply complaining will get us nowhere, even if we complain extraordinarily well.
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
great look too much - this book is new...fresh....new....really good looking...however the shipping and handling fee was freaken $17.99 for expedite shipping...i got the book overnite! GreAT on that but..the feee is definitely too much.
Customer Review: 1 out of 5
All analogies few statistics -
Sheesh....if Kozol is suppose to be some type of expert in public education, you think he would have marshaled a few facts to bolster his case. If, as other reviewers assert, the target audience for this book is the comfortable suburban parents and schools, then the book has failed. Suburbanites are sophisticated enough to require valid data to support an argument. Kozol offers nothing but anecdote and appeals to emotion. Not very convincing.
Customer Review: 2 out of 5
Zsa Zsa Gabor, Where Are You? - Kozol's got this rag doll in his mouth and won't let go. Who can blame him? The schools are in bad shape and, one supposes, someone is at fault. Why not blame everyone except the students? An alternative perspective might suggest the rise of a new phenomenon rarely mentioned by those advocating increased funding: Willful ignorance and the cult of pride. I work in the inner city. Many of my students refuse to do anything and are backed up by their parents. "You can't make me" is their slogan. No administrator will back up a teacher who assigns homework to kids who won't do it. The kids come to school three days a week and routinely take 6-weeks to visit their grandparents south of the border. The girls wear $100 nail jobs, $150 tennis shoes, and won't carry their books because they have bad backs. 25% of the kids stay home on rainy days. Charter schools make the rules the public schools refuse. The kids drop out because they won't accept discipline programs based on "consequences." After years in the local PS, they can't cope with being forced to take responsibility. No doubt, Kozol knows well that some schools have more lap tops than others. This may be a "savage inequality," but for the life of me I can't see how a lap top is going to make up for the lack curiosity in students devoted to gang culture.
--> Find out more about "The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America" at Amazon.com or Order Now
| 