by Julie Lineback
For over 50 years, Jonathan Kozol has been fighting against inequalities in public education. On October 14, the activist shared his stories of struggles and joys with a packed house of University of West Georgia students, educators, and local community members during the annual Dag Folger Critical Topics in Education Speaker Series, hosted by the UWG College of Education.
“I think ones who teach the little kids, like me, are doing the greatest things in life,” he initially addressed the crowd. “The joy and beauty, love and courage, mystery and mischief in the hearts of those little people.”
Jonathan began his work among some of America’s poorest and most disadvantaged children in the deeply segregated schools in Boston in 1964. After being fired for reading a Langston Hughes poem to his class of fourth graders, he continued to become more involved with civil rights. In 1965, he marched to Boston Common with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Black leaders wanted to thank me for taking a risk by reading black poetry with the children, so they asked me if I would like to walk with Dr. King,” Jonathan reminisced. “I remember his eyes, his voice, and the perspiration pouring down his brow. I remember him taking the wording of his dream.”
Jonathan began to write about the injustices he was witnessing, and in 1967 he published his debut book Death at an Early Age, which chronicled his experience in the Boston Public Schools. He would later receive the National Book Award for this account.
Most of the past two decades were spent working in a section of the South Bronx, Mott Haven, which Jonathan said was and remains the poorest neighborhood in the United States. He penned two books about those children, Shame of the Nation and Savage Inequalities.
“I wish I could stand here tonight and tell you there has been dramatic progress since I wrote those books, but it would not be true,” he sighed. “In terms of basic racial justice and elementary fair play to children of the poor, we stand at one of the most regressive and reactionary moments in our nation’s recent history. The savage inequalities in public education have not diminished and are unmistakable to anyone who visits rich suburban schools as I do and compares them to the schools that serve the black, the brown, and also the rural poor.”
He continued to observe how America is one of the few major nations in the world that still funds its public school primarily on the basis of local wealth. From his experience, he believes that black and Latino children are more isolated intellectually and segregated physically than any other time since 1968 when Dr. King was assassinated.
“Politicians think that testing is a good substitute for equality,” Jonathan said. “They say that they too have a dream. Dr. King’s dream was clean and pure. Dr. King said that his dream was someday little black children and white children would sit together at the table of brotherhood. That almost never happens anymore.”
Another layer of inequality Even though a child’s cognitive development is more decisively determined in the first five years of life than any other period in his or her development. Yet as Jonathan has observed time and time again, a large amount of children coming into kindergarten have not received any pre-school opportunities.
Jonathan Kozol signed copies of his award winning books after the event.
“Then they have to take high stake exams,” he gaffed. “Which ones do you think are labeled gifted and talented, and which ones are labeled developmentally delayed? This says nothing at this age but how much their parents make.”
Jonathan called it an act of robbery and wished it were simply an oversight of government.
“This is a conscious amputation of the destinies of the millions of children at an age when they have done absolutely nothing to deserve it,” he said. “They don’t learn differently. They are not different species.”
As part of his closing statements, he spoke to the college students and teachers in the room and gave examples of how they could continue his legacy of fighting for equal education opportunities: keep fighting and keep smiling. He said it renewed his spirits being in their presence.
“I don’t know what it is going to take to change that system, but I hope some of you very young folks here will live to see it,” he concluded. “It’s hard to face the fact I won’t be able to see the victory I’ve fought for all of these years. They say life goes fast, but it goes a lot faster than you think. I’ve done my best, from this point on it’s up to you.”
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