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.