Kozol Ch. 5 & 6

“It is a different story in too many inner-city schools where deviations from a charted road set off alarm bells for the supervisory officials” (Kozol P.110)

These are elementary school kids, isn’t part of their job to get off track, to be creative, to be excited about something ANYTHING in school, to find out what makes themselves tick for that matter. It’s a little crass to have to determine what is important to a child based off of state standards and not observations of the teacher. As a teacher you need to be able to learn and understand your student, one can’t follow guide lines or strict standards. Each student is not the same, each of them is interested in different things and each of them learns differently. Teachers need to be allowed to teach and teach in a way that makes the students think. Thinking leads to learning, regurgitating something that was state mandated does not.

“During the three months prior to all-important state exam, fifth grade teachers ha to set aside all other lessons from 8:40 to 11:00, and from 1:45 to 3:00 to drill children for their tests.” (Kozol 113)

Earlier in the text Kozol says “approximately a week of testing” I know from when I was a kid that there would be no way by the end of all these long testing sessions that I would not be trying any more, that I would have been burnt out. It’s unbelievable what they are putting these kids through, three months of drilling for tests, how in any way does this help the child? In my onion I don’t see how it does, you are taking away what it is to be a child, there are other important developments going on in their lives they need to be engaged and exposed to many different stimuli not bubble sheets.

“The rational for giving test like these to children in their elementary years is that the test results will help show their teachers where the children’s weakness may lie, to that they can redirect the focus…this is not the way things generally work, because of the long lapse in time between the taking of these test and the receipt of scores” (Kozol P.115)

First off, if we are in the computer age then why is there no system that teachers can access to get immediate and sorted data on each student. This is unreal, if they make such a big deal about the test then there should be big support as well. Second, if the reason for the test is to gauge where each student is at then maybe an idea would be to give them at the end of the year, with no threat of being held back (unless of course the teacher feels it is necessary or any other reason talked about by professionals and not determined by a test score) this will allow sufficient time to gather information and use it effectively.

“In Atlanta, recess has been systematically abandoned to secure more time for test-related programs…in 80 percent of Chicago schools, recess has been abolished also.” (Kozol P.120)

Ooo I get it, the goal of our education system is to create overweight non critical thinkers. If that’s the case then the system works. Obviously this is not what we as teachers want. America is facing major childhood obesity issues right now, taking away recess will only make them more tired and lazy in the classroom. To me this is as bad as it could get, this really relates to prison, to not allow the students any activity during the day is the most backwards idea yet. We were all kids once, how is it possible to not remember how important it was to have a little time to go run in circles, in my opinion it helps the students refocus.

“Education involves the heart as well as the mind…Learning entails play and risk-taking as well as ordered study…we don’t have time for these things anymore.” (Kozol P.132)

This really sums up how I feel after reading this chapter, too much has been stripped out of what goes into the education a young child.

“I don’t have the least idea of where my life is heading, and these questions that you’re asking make me scared.” (Kozol P.147)

This is the reality that these kids face, something that overcrowded, un-segregated, testing schools create. Testing and drilling students for these tests won’t change anything. Sooner or later most will give up when they understand their individual reality and with no support they will give up. These environments don’t give support. A school built for 1,800 kids held 3,400 kids this is not an environment that is effective for students of teachers. Many get lost and in turn they have no idea of what the future can bring instead they think life is supposed to be what it is like at school.

“There were 1,275 ninth graders in the fall of 1999… but only 400 of these students were enrolled in twelfth grade…of these survivors…only 188…met the requirements for graduation” (Kozol P.150)

This to me supports my idea that students get lost in these big systems where they over populate the schools. Once a student feels like no one cares for them plus their hate for school due to factors like insignificant class and unfair high-stakes tests then why would a student continue to come back? Even those that made it to twelfth grade less than 50% graduated this is not what education should be about. The environment and the material need to be engaging and interesting to the student, not something they hate and fear.  

Kozol: Chapter 4

“I was introduced to a “Time Manager” who was assigned to hold the timer to be sure the teacher didn’t wonder from her schedule and that everyone adhered to the prescribed number of minutes that had been assigned to every classroom task” (Kozol P.91)

Earlier in this chapter Kozol talks about all the manager jobs available to the students. One of them was a time manager. Although I do not feel that these jobs are a good idea (at least in the format that was talked about in this chapter) I feel that “time manager” is one of the worst. It has to do more with “adhered to the prescribed number of minutes that had been assigned to every classroom task” we as teachers can assign X amount of minutes on a topic and achieve mastery! Mastery comes from hard and continuous work until the knowledge is achieved. To be that strict on the time spent is a silly practice for teachers.

 “The Classroom Bank presented an enticing sample of real currency one-dollar bills, five-dollar bills, ten-dollar bills in order to make a clear nexus between cash reward and writing proper sentences.”

Oh man if this is the case IM RICH! There is just one thing; this IS NOT the case in the real world. There is no connection between writing proper sentences and bash rewards. This process essentially sets up the children to fail and to make them feel like they have been lied to; sooner or later they will figure out how this does not apply in the real world. All in all, when I read this became angry with such ignorant logic. (Kozol P.91)

“We want every child to be working as a manger while he or she is in this school”, the principal explained. “We want to make them understand that, in this country, companies will give you opportunities to work, to prove yourself, no matter what you’ve done” &  “even if you have a felony arrest, we want you to understand that you can be a manager some day.” (P.93)

No matter what you have done, even if you have a felony arrest. This is how the principal and teachers of this school looks at the student body. Negative mind sets like that come through in the curriculum. So this means the everyday teachers and principals are just waiting for the children to mess up, not expecting them to succeed, but expecting them to be felons, but that expectation is negative, and bleeds through in ones teaching. Like I said last blog students are smarter then we think. If we categorized them, they will know and become resistant.

“Sometimes the educated child is referred to as “the product” too.” (Kozol P.94) & “Did you even stop to think that these robots will never burglarize your home? He asked, will never snatch your pocket books…these robots are going to be producing takes…” (Kozol P.97-98)

I put these two quotes together as one because this just makes me mad. Seriously people, we should NOT be viewing the child as a product or as something (robots) who won’t steal. Each and every child is a human, and each one of them comes from a different ethnic, cultural, economical, and social backgrounds. We as teachers need to recognize that and try out best to make real, human connections to our students and their outside of school world. Products, Robots…we aren’t business people, we are educators, and our goal is not to create products/robots but to create well rounded, educated, productive members of society. How the student does so, should be up to them.

“practices that vulgarize the intellects of children and take from their education far too man of its opportunities for cultural and critical reflectiveness without which citizens become receptacles for other people’s ideologies and ways of looking at the world but lack the independent spirits to create their own.  (Kozol P.98)

Going along with the theme of this chapter, I was angry when I read this. We should not be taking away cultural and critical reflectiveness opportunities from the children. If we never relate material to the real world then we are filling the children’s heads with a lot of nothing. If the material has no bearing on their day to day lives, then we are providing them useless knowledge. It’s one thing to learn something; it’s another to be able to apply something. Me personally, material doesn’t sink in until I have  done it. Also in this quote it speaks to being a “receptacles to other people’s ideologies” When I was growing up in JHS and HS I tried my best to be my own person, to figure out thing for my own, with my opinions and ideologies It was the worst when a teacher tried to push theirs onto you. This is not what education is about, we should teach a concept and left it grow. Not teach a concept and tell the student exactly how it will always be because you learned it here. THINKING is a vital part of education, not passively listening to what someone tells you.

“A student could select a college education as a “career path” but this option wasn’t marketed to many of the students at the school as forcefully as were the job-related programs”

Once again this angered me, why wouldn’t we as teachers be urging our students to going to post-secondary education. This model of education I feel completely misses the mark and what we should be doing. By using this style you are taking away opportunities. Granted college is not for everyone, and that is fine. But you can’t disallow a whole school population that opportunity. College should be the goal of all schools. “shot for the sun, and if you fall short you will be amongst the stars” this is the idea we should be teaching to. We as educators should be teaching so that the students can either, peruse post-secondary education or enter the work force. Like I said earlier college isn’t for everyone but not even making it an option is unacceptable.

“Even a hint of mockery not of the white kids them selves but of the situation that seems slightly artificial and contrived to them and is also, as they surely recognize, a one-time shot that will not change the lives they lead when they return to the South Bronx” (Kozol P.17)

This quote is refereeing to when the pastor takes some children to inter-racial gatherings. I can see the good in doing something like this, but I believe this quote shows how ignorant educators and officials can be. What I mean by that is, these at risk kids are smarter then we give them credit for. They see the gathering as a hoax, a joke, a day away from school. Like I said there could be good in this, it has the ability to touch a few children, but I don’t believe that it even speaks to the over all bigger issue of segregated schools and unfair slenderized test determining what schools will receive money and which ones wont effectively driving away good, open minded educators away, which will inevitably create a downward spiral for these schools.

“If you want to see a really segregated school in the United States today, start by looking for school that's named for Martin Luther King, or Rosa Parks” (Kozol P.24)

The numbers on this page are pretty shocking! Numbers like 98% black, 99% Black and Hispanic, etc. but as I think about it...how shocking is it really. I went to school with the student population was 99% white the rest were Asian and a few Blacks (I graduated with 1 Black kids in my class, growing up in NY, Suffolk County Long Island) . So if I grew up in a white suburb, then the opposite must be true. So what was really shocking about this quote is how shocking it shouldn’t be. I also realized how closed off I was from their reality as much as the Black and Hispanic children in these schools are to what was my reality growing up.

Residential segregation in New York City area, they note, remains today at the same level as in 1960, a remarkable statistic that belies the myth of gradual but steady progress that is frequently suggested by the media” states “do little to enforce fair housing laws” (Kozol P.32)

I do believe that class-ism and race-ism go hand in hand, especially in our segregated school system. This to me is one of those backwards ways a group gets what they want, create an equal housing right...but do nothing to enforce it. We just watched Tim Wise in class and he pointed out that in 2006 there was the most complaints about equal housing ever since it was first put in place. This to me proves that there was never true enforcement of the law, and when privileged ( people in power, in this case land and living quarters owners) started realizing that they took advantage...and seem that they still are.

“We do not have the same 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 things and we do not have all the thing....Can you help us?” (Kozol P.39) & “ four kindergarten classes and a sixth grade class packed into a single room that had no windows.”

I put these two quotes together because it shows both sides of how much a disadvantage these children are. The first one speaks to how smart the kids are and a young age, how they can start to see their own reality and essential creating a feeling of acceptance that this is what life is and all it will ever be. The second quote truly re-enforces that idea, if a school can actually operate like that and find it acceptable then they are feeding what these children have already cemented into their lives. Why should they feel like the can succeed, I wouldn’t if I was in that situation.

“In NYC, for example, affluent parents pay surprisingly large sums of money to enroll their youngsters in extraordinary early-education programs, typically beginning at the age of two or three, that give them social competence and rudimentary pedagogic skills unknown to children of the same age in the city's poorer neighborhoods...“Baby Ivies” cost as much as $22,000 for a full-day program.” (Kozol P.50)

With all sorts of racism’s present in today’s world class-ism is present in this quote. There are available early-education programs available to everyone...everyone who can pay that is. A few paragraphs after this quote states that in middle and upper class suburbs more then three quarters attended early-education programs, in poor urban areas “only an handful.” essentially what is going on is the rich will succeed and get richer and the poor will stay where they are. And it all starts at earl-education give people of privilege a distinct advantage.

“The principal didn't ask the Level Ones to raise their hands according to the teacher... It's like the Level Ones weren't even there”

I had two reactions when I read this, first was WOW. The principal of all people, goes to show how much a business of test taking education has become. My second reaction was “If I was labeled as a Level One, and that happened, what exactly would my motivation be to move out of this Level One status. Probably nothing” Like I said earlier in this blog, these kids are smarter then we know, maybe not in the ways the educators consider smart. But these children know when they have been given up on. And when the principal gives up on you its could seem like all is lost.