The main thrust of Kozol’s book thus far is that inner-city schools get the short end of the stick. They get no respect, they get no funding and classes must be conducted in less than ideal classrooms. The buildings are in disrepair, the faculty is disheartened and the children are doomed to fail. Conversely, schools in predominantly white neighborhoods are well-funded and there is an underlying assumption that the students will succeed.
What Kozol refers to as ‘apartheid schooling,’ in which the government (represented by Caucasians) keeps minorities down by keeping them separated from the rest of society seems suspect to me, especially after reading deMarrais’ discussion of youth culture and peer groups. “Part of the herd instinct that afflicts young people involves role-modeling and trying on different identities exemplified by their friends or significant adult figures. Another part involves learning the norms and values of a group and trying to stay within them. (deMarrais, 99).” It is instinctive for people to want to be with people who are like themselves. All the forced segregation in the world will not defeat human nature. If there is a sense of apartheid in the inner city, it is something the people there choose, either consciously or sub-consciously. Their family is there, their community is there, their history is there. The system that keeps them in place is one they have instituted themselves through decades of repeated behavior.
As Kozol points out, why are all really segregated schools named after black civil rights leaders? Martin Luther King and Thurgood Marshall, once names representational of hope and greatness, now seem to represent poverty and despair. It isn’t that the dream is over, it has simply given in to human nature. The dream seems unattainable, so those who would dream find other things to fill their days.
In chapter two, Kozol points out certain upscale neighborhoods have engaged in fundraising in order to bolster the faculty at their schools. One school had raised enough cash to hire on a writing teacher and two more teachers besides. Kozol states this could never happen in the inner-city because there aren’t as many funds to be raised.
The real question here is, why should any school have to resort to a fundraiser when the funds are available from the government? How does the government decide which schools get X amount of dollars? The description of the Bush Administration’s “No Child Left Behind” Act states there is 120 billion dollars spent on education per year. How is it not filtering down to the inner-city schools? There’s nothing wrong with buying a candy bar for a school function now and then, but certainly not to keep a teacher employed.
Schools should all have the same governmental funding. It may not be a bad idea for there to be a national curriculum. Everyone complains about how kids from other countries are beating our test scores so badly; why hasn’t the government stepped in?
I don’t think that automatically putting black kids and white kids together will make the rift in learning disappear. And it is possible to have a well-funded school with underachieving students. But we won’t know until all students have the same opportunity to succeed… or fail. Is integration truly the Holy Grail for inner city schools? I don’t know. I really don’t think so. I don’t think it is bad that black kids go to black schools and white kids go to white schools. Again, it is a comfort zone thing. But let all the schools receive more than adequate funding so they can all have good facilities, attract good teachers and turn out well-educated students.
