The concept of diversity in schools is supposed to ensure that students have equal and free access to educational institutions despite their race, economic or social background. It means understanding that each is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. Kozol realized that schools in the United States were not constituent in a diverse manner that the country was. He realized that many schools had students who belonged to a similar ethnicity or race, social and economic standards. He did this through investigations and fact finding to note what ailed the system. He also found out the factor that caused the disparity in the schools. At length, his letter has been used to give recommendations on how the schools should adapt to the …show more content…
One of these disadvantages is the student’s family. It is possible that the student’s family would be a disadvantage by their children’s admission in a diverse school environment. Multicultural education is responsible for the conveyance of different cultures to students who do not belong to the communities. Families would hence disapprove of their children going to schools that teach them of different cultures, considering that many students are attached to their families very closely. For instance, learning about different cultures may change the feelings of students towards a certain culture. Integrating students into the environment with students from different racial and ethnic background can also lead to prejudice and discrimination among them. This is thus disadvantageous to the students who are of ethnic minority communities, and it may inhibit their academic achievement. It justifies the parents who prefer taking their students to the schools that have their children’s race as the dominant one. Students who learn in schools that have their race as the predominant in the institution are also likely to do better (USA Today, para …show more content…
However, the major disadvantage would be the student 's families. Some families do not like it when their children are schooling in a diversified environment. To evade such demerits, the presence of diversity and equality should be paramount in our education system instead of creating a caste system. Conclusively, all students are entitled to equal access to good education despite their race, social or economic status. Kozol discusses the problems causing the segregation and the effects of the system and also how schools relate to these concerns. He also describes the statistics about the population of the students in the classes and uses them to show how communities are wrongfully denying the fact that schools are not integrated. The diversification of the education system has a lot of disadvantages but portrays only one odd, offending the children’s
Jonathan Kozol, an award winning writer, wrote the essay “Still separate, Still Equal” that focuses on primary and secondary school children from minority families that are living in poverty. There is a misconception in this modern age that historical events in the past have now almost abolished discrimination and segregation for the most part; however, “schools that were already deeply segregated
They are overwhelmingly nonwhite and exceptionally poor, which stands out forcefully from the well off overwhelmingly white rural schools right alongside them (Kozol 74). He constrains his choices to poor inner city schools as opposed to incorporating examples of every single poor school in light of the fact that he feels that they best display racial isolation and social class divisions. He states that even though many schools can be “diverse” with different cultures and ethnicities, segregation occurs through different programs that are provided in
In the essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal” by Jonathan Kozol, the situation of racial segregation is refurbished with the author’s beliefs that minorities (i.e. African Americans or Hispanics) are being placed in poor conditions while the Caucasian majority is obtaining mi32 the funding. Given this, the author speaks out on a personal viewpoint, coupled with self-gathered statistics, to present a heartfelt argument that statistics give credibility to. Jonathan Kozol is asking for a change in this harmful isolation of students, which would incorporate more funding towards these underdeveloped schools. This calling is directed towards his audience of individuals who are interested in the topic of public education (seeing that this selection is from one of his many novels that focus on education) as well as an understanding of the “Brown v. Board of Education” (1954) case, which ties in to many aspects of the author’s essay. With the application of exemplum, statistics, and emotional appeals, Jonathan Kozol presents a well developed argument.
In Jonathan Kozol’s essay titled, “From Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid,” Kozol touches on how racial segregation has not disappeared in big cities’ urban public school systems. In this essay we can see how both types of judgements; racial and academic come together to form a stereotype about intellectual success in our current educational system. On the other hand, he brings to our attention that it is the American citizen’s common belief that racial segregation in public schools doesn’t exist anymore. In Kozol’s work he discusses various schools in major cities he has visited and offers the reader personal anecdotes from interviews with students. One quote from a student that I found remarkably interesting is “we do not have the things you have. You have clean things. We do not have. You have a clean bathroom. We do not have that. You have Parks and we do not have Parks. You have all the thing and we do not have all the thing. Can you help us?” (Kozol). This little girl is begging and reaching out to a white man because she thinks that he can help her. I am curious as to why she thinks that white schools have more than children at her school and if this is from first hand experience or from hearing from others. Does she think this way because her school demographics are composed mostly of one race? More importantly, I hope that someone did not teach her to think that
The essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal”, by Jonathan Kozol, discusses the reality of inner-city public school systems, and the isolation and segregation of inequality that students are subjected to; as a result, to receive an education. Throughout the essay, Kozol proves evidence of the inequality that African American and Hispanic children face in the current school systems.
Kozol describes schools that run almost like factories or prisons in grim detail. According to Kozol, US schools are quite quickly becoming functionally segregated. Kozol lists the demographics of a slew of public schools in the state, named after prominent civil rights activists, whose classrooms are upwards of 97% black and Hispanic — in some cases despite being in neighborhoods that are predominantly white. It has been over 50 years since Brown vs. the Board of Education. It is sad to read about the state of things today.
On the other hand, a large portion of what Kozol says is well supported and highly effective. He is a very passionate writer and does a wonderful job of stating the facts, not just his side of the story. He uses conversations with the children and teachers to get the reader’s attention and make the reader understand that these are real people these things are happening to, not just numbers. Kozol is a very persuasive writer, with brilliant ideas and down-to-earth opinions. He doesn’t want his readers to be hateful towards the public school systems; he wants us to know the truth.
...economics and history. The unequal attitude is due to economics as well and how America has a faulty tax system to equalize our schools. It is also up to the students and parents themselves to acquire the knowledge needed to pursue a better life. Kozol has shown that America’s education system needs improvement to equalize the education received for each student. The article has expressed a spiraling out of control situation that needs to be halted and changed sooner than later to help America’s future. I find it disturbing that those that are the poorest have to suffer and have a low chance at changing their children’s lives without making major changes now. What will it take to create an educational system that works for all and in spirit of Kozol, what will it take to integrate those with a white complexion, African Americans, Hispanics, and other ethnicities?
Focusing on the discrepancy in resources between schools that are predominantly Black or Latino (usually inner city) and schools that are predominantly white (usually suburban), Kozol provides case studies and statistics to show some kids are given every opportunity to succeed while others (oppressed nations) are set up to fail. Conditions faced by children are a topic that should be an easy win for Communists looking to explain to people the need for equality for all. It's hard to imagine someone thinking that a kid, born into circumstances out of his or her control, deserves to suffer poor housing, inadequate healthcare, and substandard education. While there are many who would argue adults "bring it on them," kids clearly have no control over where they are born.
First Kozol effectively argues to the reader the reality of segregation and inequalities that face our children in public schools by his brilliant use of pathos. He is able to stir a reader’s emotions, through his various testimonies from students, teachers, and facility and arousing imagery. He presents readers with many student testimonials that really paint a vivid portrait of what these children are seeing, feeling, and needing. For example, in one fifteen year old child’s testimony he conveys a sense of this heart wrenching pain, when she tries to explain her understanding of the racial segregation of her neighborhoods and schools. She states, “It’s as if you have been put in a garage where, if they don’t have room for something but aren’t sure if they should throw it out, they put it there where they don’t need to think of it again.” Kozol then solidifies his argument by including a question from the sixteen year old child next to the previous child that states that, “if people in New York woke up one day and learned that we were gone, that we had simply died or left for somewhere else, how would they feel” (205)? Then finally Kozol completes the finishing blow of emotions to the reader wit...
This source will equip the argument for utilizing diversity as an educational apparatus that supports student development and learning. The showcase of the impact of diverse student engagement will definitely be useful for providing a strong reasoning for showcasing how the experience of students in the US schooling system shapes the educational experiences of diversified student groups. Dixson, A., & Rousseau, C. (2005). And we are still not saved: critical race theory in education ten years later.... ...
Topics of race and inequality are critical topics we continue to debate everyday in America. My research synthesis paper is about school segregation, and I wanted to identify how and why schools continue to be racially and socioeconomically segregated today. I will use these questions, as well as knowledge gained from scholarly articles, as a platform for my analysis of school segregation and its implications for students and communities. So I wanted to discover if integration still matters, do our schools need to be desegregated, and if not, then how can our schools become diverse and effective. Racial segregation, segregation and systemic oppression doesn’t just start in one place. There is a structure in place that makes all of the discrimination
Diversity in classrooms can open student’s minds to all the world has to offer. At times diversity and understanding of culture, deviant experiences and perspectives can be difficult to fulfill, but with appropriate strategies and resources, it can lead students gaining a high level of respect for those unlike them, preferably than a judgmental and prejudiced view.
The world is currently undergoing a cultural change, and we live in an increasingly diverse society. This change is not only affect the people in the community but also affect the way education is viewed. Teaching diversity in the classroom and focusing multicultural activities in the programs can help improve positive social behavior in children. There is no question that the education must be prepared to embrace the diversity and to teach an increasingly diverse population of young children.
...trated in the inner city where the worst, most impoverished schools are located. Therefore, even if they wish to attend school, they still receive have less access to good teachers and a good learning environment. And perhaps the most detrimental issue that minorities face is that they are often stigmatized as inferior. This causes them to be treated differently and it causes them to have low expectations for themselves, which leads to poor performance.