Jonathan Kozol: Education in America (1 of 6)

[ashleydew01]

Where was this speech delivered?

[hotbooty11]

Such a respect for a man to step outside of his comfort zone and use his god given brains......Bravo Mr Kozol!

[bizakis9]

Jonathan Kozol is a fantastic human being.. All the hate in some of these comments can not change that. Thank you Johnathan Kozol for all your work and love over all these years.

[REASONINFUSION]

@bizakis9 Yes, I am a black man who many would call radical and it is "comrades" like Mr. Kozol that moves black intellectuals from cultural nationalism. I too thank him, Tim Wise, Robert Jenson, Peggy Mcintosh and others like them. They are the best of america and exist in spite of it. Good comment.

[amourdutigre]

P.S.

You might want to try to condense your ramblings into one post...

Yawn.

[waynek591]

And this White fellow has them eating out of his hands.

[xjtbarnesx]

@amourdutigre Whether or not you are a racist, and whether or not you believe it to be true, the statements you're making are racist as fuck. Furthermore, we're talking about children, so the "earn it yourself" mentality is embarrassingly shortsighted. No child should be held accountable for their parent's shortcomings. Also, dismissing things as "commie" "obama____" and "marxist" isn't actually an argument. It sounds like you could've done with a better education yourself hombre.

[amourdutigre]

@xjtbarnesx

So, what you are saying, is that unless I accept this marxist garbage, and feel obligated to educate other folks kids who do not live in my community, that I am racist? No 'hombre', I am not racist. I DO insist upon a degree of responsibiltiy, self initiative, and an abiding upon a social norm that does not include drugs, theft, thugary, illegitimacy and not slopping at the public trough, all of which is in rather short supply in the ghetto. That is why I do not live there.

[xjtbarnesx]

@amourdutigre So, you /do/ believe people should be held responsible for the actions of others? You believe that otherwise innocent, 7-year-old children should be deprived of a good education because of the shortcomings of their parents? It's hard for me to believe a person like yourself frequents the ghetto enough to "see" anything, but I'm positive you've never seen children wasting money on drugs and cars. Again, you're blaming these children for their parent's actions.

[amourdutigre]

@xjtbarnesx

I by law, would be held responsible for the actions of my kids. I am also both legally and morally responsible to take care of my kids and provide their needs. I am NOT morally or legally responsible to take care of other folks kids. Their PARENTS are. You have no idea what I have or have not seen, and yes, I have seen many examples of the ghetto values on my way to work each day. Life is NOT fair.

[amourdutigre]

@xjtbarnesx

No, I have not seen (young) kids spend money on drugs or cars, but I have seen many examples of their parents (often with more kids than I have cats, which is not a small number) doing so. If you feel some strange compunction to give your money and resources to educate and care for other people's responsibilities, then be my guest and go right ahead. I have no such need, and this is why I moved far enough away from the city so that no marxist court can make me.

[mollywog516]

@amourdutigre So you have no concern for these children who have no one to look out for them? As an American do you not have any sense of community or compassion for your fellow countrymen? It's not about feeling guilty or marxism. It's about giving all children a safe, functioning learning environment. This country advertizes itself as a place where the little man can work his way up, but this society has created so many obsticles it is as though we are punishing them for trying.

[amourdutigre]

@mollywog516

No dumbass, I care about MY responsibilities, my family and my loved ones. I lived my life in such a way as to become a success. What I resent is you libtards who seem to think that I have a responsibility to take care of other people's responsibilities. Where are the FAMILIES of these children? Where are their parents? Oh, what, we can screw, but not take care of the outcome of that act?

Sorry, that is not my gig.

[mylokaf]

@amourdutigre Second, I take issue with your use of the term "ghetto"....The term ghetto was originally used in Europe to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live and many of the early American ghettos included Irish immigrants/Americans. Third, you should check the government stats on crime you might find that most crimes are committed by a small percent of the American population, so to just to make a sweeping indictment of all poor people is wrong........

[mylokaf]

@amourdutigre Most poor people do not use drugs and they are not thugs. Fourth, I grew up in a mixed race ghetto and I saw just as many poor white people using drugs and out on the corner as poor blacks. Lindsey Lohan and Charlie Sheen are two of the worst drug addicts I can think off. Fifth, I thought your use of the term 'thuggary" was wrong...........

[mylokaf]

@amourdutigre So if a black man commits a crime and wears jeans he is a "thug" but if a white man commits a crime and wears a suit he is cool (Al Capone, John Gotti and other men in the mafia) or he his is a cult hero in movies (Godfather, Scarface, Toni Soprano). Those Italian guys in suits are murderers and drug pushers just like any black guy who does the same thing...........

[mylokaf]

@amourdutigre So it is unfair to indict a whole group of low income people........for the record I’m black, from the ghetto, and I am I Republican and I am none of the things you described. I live in the city and it is a very nice area........So go ahead send me a racist message back and tell me I’m a nigger........I know it’s coming.

[amourdutigre]

@mylokaf

Isn't it strange how YOU engage in the pre-judgment that you accuse me of, yet I have never once employed in my comments. Indeed, if what you say is true, then you are the example of what I demand in the way of personal responsibility and acheivement (the exact opposite of commie kozol). If however, as I suspect, you are some education major in the acadamy who has never worked a day in their life and are living on my taxes, well, that explains your stupid post.

[mylokaf]

@amourdutigre First of all Im not in the education field, and I have been working since I was 15 and Im 33 know, so I do not live off anyones tax dollars..............I said I agreed with you about responsibility, self initiative......but I just took objection to your use of certian words.

[mylokaf]

@amourdutigre Ah i see know the truth comes out.......I saw your Kenyan comment about the president....just as I fugured......LOL Take care Im not wasting anymore enery on you!!

[ashleyen3]

@xjtbarnesx I completely agree with you

[mylokaf]

@amourdutigre This is response to your comments for the "Education in America" video. First, I agree with you when you talk about responsibility, self initiative. There is an education crisis will lower income people in general bit it is the parents responsibility to raise their kids properly. However as political science Major I do look at the whole picture and realize how far even the American kids who go the private/upper income schools still test lower than kids in China/Japan.......

[REASONINFUSION]

@amourdutigre There you go again!!! All that "pull yourself up by your boot strap" bullshit! White people are the least likely to ever have to pull themselves up by the boot straps since you have from the start dedicated most of your time protecting your unearned advantage over people you stole from, raped, lynched, burned and other wise lied to. Not one white person in america has ever known what it is like to earn anything on merit.

[REASONINFUSION]

@amourdutigre I also find it funny that when something is ethical you fools call it "Marxist"! I'm sure Karl would be proud. I also doubt if you have ever even read Das Kapital or for that matter, "The Wealth of nations". You will have to be more than white in a forum that I am in. Now you will have to prove your intelligence and not be given a free ride due to the myth your group spent centuries creating. Oh And on the "drug" thing, no black dealer gets rich without white junkies!

[jillkcannon]

@amourdutigre my personal email is jillcannon1@yahoo.com

If you are a person who values intelligent discourse rather than meaningless ranting email me and we can express our views back and forth to one another. Perhaps we can learn from each other.

[amourdutigre]

@xjtbarnesx

Further, though these children cannot earn their way yet, their parents can, but dont. And don't give me this shit about lack of opportunity. I see a lot of money spent on things like drugs, 'pimped' cars, and such. NO pal, the real racist is Kommie Kozol, with his digs at "the whitest poet ever" (true quote from this stooge RE Robert Frost) and those of us who work for our living and wish to live in an exclusive area. Commie Obammy can go to hell, and so can you, "hombre".

[MattyTheMole]

@amourdutigre In general, Americans are guilty of bad investments. Our lower to middle class citizens live like fake rich people who dont understand that with more money comes more responsibility. My parents are a good example. I grew up in a middle class household that made no more than $80,000 a year, yet my parents invested in all kinds of worthless house hold stuff: Cars, boat, luxury renovations, pool etc. Now my brothers and sister are all mulitple screw ups and Im 29 with no job.

[amourdutigre]

@MattyTheMole

And your point is? I am not of the lower middle class. I made my wealth by a lifetime of hard work, smart investments, thrift and by making my own luck. I would suggest that your screwup siblings and your unemployment has nothing to do with your parents spending habits, rather YOUR (and your sibling's) personal choices. I have a nice house, pool, heated spa, nice trucks, etc. My son is quite successful in his own right. Taking responsibility for your actions is the first step..

[amourdutigre]

@xjtbarnesx

Oh, one more thing. I earned my MA in education with honors and a 4.0 out of 4.0 GPA. My education was just fine, thankyou. I am simply not marxist like the majority in the acadamy, nor do I feel "guilty about being white" as kommie kozol would say. And if you and your ilk do not like that, oh well...

[tylerheck1]

@amourdutigre

I find it hard to believe you are as educated as you say when you post these ignorant remarks. But if so congratulations for retaining your prejudices.

[amourdutigre]

@tylerheck1

I could care less what you believe. It is when you suggest that I have some responsibility to take care of other's responsibilities and try to insinuate that my resources should be taken in to that end, that is when I start to care. Why don't YOU give your resources (i.e. money) to that what this marxist (kozol) bleats so loudly about. Oh, thats right... you probably dont have any.

[tylerheck1]

@amourdutigre

Well my friend, let me just say that you've convinced me. I've started watching FOX News, and do those guys know their stuff. What an ass I must have been for thinking it would be nice to help the poor, those bastards deserve their fate for wasting the equal opportunity America gave them. If the poor can't afford their unalienable rights, well they should have saved more money. Rights are for winners, and these people are subhuman at best.

[mylokaf]

@xjtbarnesx Read Mr. @amourdutigre from other areas and you can see what he is about! Lets not engage with folks like him......I belive in personal responsibility....but we need to address the education crisis in America.......lets stick to folks who want to talk without making those kind of statements.....dont waste your time with folks like that! GOD BLESS!!!

[daproduca38128]

I've read the comments. No one should be bussing anyone anywhere. Kids should go to school where they live. The key is equalizing the quality of education kids receive across the board. People need to abandon the conceited belief that I've made it, everyone else can.. That's bullshit...

[Sammyjackson1488]

Yeah, Kozol, African Americans haven't destroyed enough of America. Let's keep it going.

[amourdutigre]

John, admit it. You are as red as they come. I had to sit and listen to several hours of your nonsense as a course requirement, and politely clap and act like I really was listening to you. You disparagingly referred to my favorite poet Robert Frost as the "whitest poet ever". And you gushed all over the obamanation in the whitehouse while failing to realize that he is the biggest elitist of them all.

Shame on the nation for listening to this crap.

ADT

[traccan]

@amourdutigre I see you went in to your classes with an open mind and ready to learn. As always, the conservative position exposes itself as the "I am only concerned about myself but I will disguise it by talking about America as if we were one and the same". Some of my intellectual mentors have disparaged my favorite authors too; I'll never forgive Harold Bloom for what he said about Updike and Stephen King, but he's still the best critic on Stevens out there. Better red than dead. Peace.

[amourdutigre]

@traccan

Hardly. This guy is a commie no matter how you cut it. If he had his way (from his own mouth), I would have to send my kids to some god forsaken ghetto school forty miles away. I would home school my kids before I ever allowed that to happen. Johnny commie obammy kozol is as closed minded as you accuse me of being. And like all race baiting commies, he expects (demands actually) that white people bow down to whatever non-white proletariat walk in front of our path. I say bullshit!

[traccan]

@amourdutigre I agree that sending your kids to some god-forsaken ghetto school is not the way to create a more just society. What would be, and what should be done, is sending kids from ghettos with clear ability and talent to schools of the kind your kids go to, because there's no reason other than class privilege why they shouldn't. America says its all about upward mobility but there's no moving upward for those kids (anymore...there was at a point in history), and that's Kozol's point.

[amourdutigre]

@traccan

And why should my school district that my neighbors and I have voted to fund far above the state minimum, take students from districts where the citizens do not give enough of a damn to fund their own school districts? I was not to the manor born, I in fact grew up in a lower blue collar socieo-economic neighborhood. I worked my way to where I am today, and I want my kids to be exposed to an educational environment where success is celebrated, not to imported ghetto mentality.

[pedrocampo13]

@amourdutigre Because jackass, public schools are funded by property tax. In an inner city where most people rent, and there are no big corporations to pay taxes to fund those schools, the schools receive less money. Think about how "hard" you actually worked for the shit you own and the snobby, probably obese spoiled little brat children you are raising. You clearly are going to raise some world class children, imposing your concepts of race and lack of any actual knowledge on them.

[amourdutigre]

@pedrocampo13

No you commie, my kids are NOT obese, lazy or uneducated. You cite factors that have nothing to do with my community as being reasons your inner city ghetto schools suck. If you want good schools, clean up your ghettos, attract buisness and employers and improve your tax base and schools. Do not take what is ours, that we worked for just because you are a marxist (like commie kozol). There is a reason why the inner city has no tax base, and that reason is in your mirror.

[amourdutigre]

Commie kozol stated in his presentation that there "should be mandatory busing from the suburbs to the inner city" Indeed, what originally killed the urban was forced busing. All that east coast Marxist kozol could do is bash white people (strange in that he is white himself), conservative values, Robert Frost, those of us who care about our kids, people that take care of themselves, who are productive and successful. You can keep your commie hero, and I will see that my kids are well educated.

[WannabeePhD]

@amourdutigre I must tell you one of the things I agree with you..is I feel we should really take care of our 'own' kind. I remember when after 9/11 everyone wanted me to worry about all those damn 'Americans' that had been attacked...wanted me to worry about them. I love how you see that so clearly. I remember when they said "America Under Attack"....yea, right! You keep telling it.....right on!

[LMcCloskey0]

I understand the difficulty to "prove" someone is a bad teacher, but the real problem lies in the inequality of quality of education. Since education expenditures are based on the property tax of that area, lower income families will most likely send their kids to a low income school. Yet i do feel that teachers who through evaluation and are considered poor teachers should be fired. The problem lies in the system and its becoming to large to fix

[brianmc18974]

Most teachers leave teaching within 5 years...do you really want to get rid of unions? Do you really want your child in a school where there are new teachers every month? If we get rid of unions-that's what we're dealing with. The union give teachers a sense of much-needed stability in an already very difficult job.

[100GeorgeSPatton]

You want to know how to improve education here Teachers cant be fired, so make it where there income can be dirt low, if their students are not proficient.If they are they get raises.

There successes are measured by local and state communities. If students succeed in the test then the teachers get money. If not, then the districts pay money to the state. Incentive to make test really really hard. I think so. Incentive to make students work hard for there own but sakes. Good idea, i think so.

[brianmc18974]

we know you couldn't be a teacher since you don't know the difference between 'there' and 'their' Tell me this, sir, how do you distinguish a teacher who sucks at her job but has a large majority or intelligent students, versus a teacher who is awesome, but the children are low performers??

[100GeorgeSPatton]

@brianmc18974 Mistakes happen when you type fast. You distinguish the teachers by letting the test take place over several years, with more than 1 class. Before you take action. Lets just say five. The odds are the teacher is not going to get all bad or good students in such a time. Although my position has changed since the last time i posted. I sort of realized that what i said wouldn't do a thing good. For education to improve what we need to do is break up the teachers union and get the fed

[100GeorgeSPatton]

out of this.

[brianmc18974]

The first problem is that they want to base pay on test scores solely on math and reading, but they're only a small fraction of what teachers teach. What if you teach Spanish? Or art? There are no "standards" to evaluate, therefore it's not fair. Then there is the problem of materials, they want teachers to do our jobs but we don't even have books or supplies, but they sure want us to teach the kids to read!!

[brianmc18974]

Merit pay will also cause a hostile work environment between teachers doing the same job but getting less money.

[littlemissmeg13]

Here's the problem with this argument. Imagine you are a tenth grade teacher whose students are reading at a third or fourth grade level, because their education all along has been so abysmal. You could bring them up to a seventh grade level, and that would be a huge accomplishment, but according to your argument, you'd still be paid a "dirt low income" and your hard work would be ignored or you might even be punished. The problem's more complicated than you're making it out to be.

[theannapolisman]

The best way to help poor people is to change the way they think. if you change the way they think you change the way they chose to live. Poor people get involved in social evils that undermine their prosperity. They need to make better choices.

[glamatomic]

I adore this man. Savage Inequalities, Rachel and Her Children, and Amazing Grace are MUST reads for every American.

[anidelle]

This guy is funny. I like him. Just read "Savage Inequalities" for school. Really great stuff.

[Danknee321]

i just read his book "amazing grace"...life changing.

[Acronym77]

This guy cares nothing for his own people. Hey Jonathan, what about Whites (Jew and Gentile) and their betterment? They are bullied in schools by Blacks..... I have witnessed Black-on-White crimes whereby many Blacks beat up on one lone "Whiteboy".....

[ChristiansMustLearn]

does it serve any jew to partner with hatemongers like yourself? the issue is about the stratification of people based on culture and so called race. This guy cares about ALL PEOPLE. Real equality is the betterment of the human species..not the "white" race

Watch this. I pray you have an open mind

/watch?v=dC5dP32MkcY

[empbac]

Blame your ancestors for bringing them here as slaves to begin with.

Crime is a bad thing, sure, but to blame black kids to such a degree when they are so cast aside in society is wrong. There are ways to address the problem you mention, and it involves education and the DENUNCIATION of racism. By making such clear distinctions from them you are perpetuating their perceiving you as an outsider and an enemy.

Great speech from this guy.

[tdon39]

I just read sahame of a nation

This guy is awesome

[yvirani]

thanks so much for posting!

[oldhacks]

you should make a playlist. this is a great presentation on the importance of education

[mooncooninc83]

Thank God for the MEF!

[blackberryjuice1]

Excellent. Many thanks to MEF for posting this lecture on Youtube!