Analysis Of Jonathan Kozol's Article: The Challenges Of Fremont High School Students

“Windowless and nasty classrooms, retarded courses, no air conditioning and can we talk bathrooms?” As citizens, the conflicts and the issues that our society deals with every day should bring awareness and a call to take action. For instance, Jonathan Kozol came up with a plan to bring consciousness to his readers by writing an article about the struggles of the Fremont High School students, in which problems such as over crowded classrooms, teachers shortage, lack of bathroom supplies, unsanitary kitchen, basic academic courses and inequality. In order to write and put together his article, he took a tour in person and found his way to successfully achieve his goal by documenting students, teachers, and other staff members’ testimonies in which one of his main focuses was Mireya. Furthermore, Kozol’s real facts on the matter successfully make a statement on social and racial inequalities, in which the main purpose of his article was to capture the attention of his audience to find resolutions on the matters that affects a child’s future. To begin with, Kozol interviews teachers and gathers important facts, in which the teachers states that nearly a third of all of the classes took place in portable classrooms, some in converted storage closets – “windowless and nasty,”

The average of ninth grade students read at a fourth or fifth level grade or below and two thirds of the ninth grade students drop out by twelfth grade. With that being said, the students were taking pointless courses that were affecting their academic performances, such classes were Sewing Class, Life Skills, or “retarded class” as they were defined by Mireya’s own words. According to Mireya her classmates have aspirations for a profession such as a being social worker or a doctor, in Mireya’s case she plans to go to