Jonathan Kozol: Education in America (2 of 6)

http://www.mediaed.org

Jonathan Kozol is a non-fiction writer, educator, and activist, best known for his books on public education in the United States. Kozol graduated from Noble and Greenough School in 1954, and Harvard University summa cum laude in 1958 with a degree in English Literature. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford. He did not, however, complete his Rhodes, deciding instead to go to Paris to write a novel. He spent four years there writing his only published work of fiction, The Fume of Poppies, and getting to know the likes of William Styron. It was upon his return that he began to tutor children in Roxbury, MA, and soon became a teacher in the Boston Public Schools. He was fired for teaching a Langston Hughes poem, as described in Death at an Early Age, and then became deeply involved in the civil rights movement. After being fired from BPS he was offered a job to teach for Newton Public Schools, the school district that he had attended as a child, and taught there for several years before becoming more deeply involved in social justice work and dedicating more time to writing.

Kozol has since held two Guggenheim Fellowships, has twice been a fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation, and has also received fellowships from the Field and Ford Foundations.

Kozol also has worked in the field of social psychology. Kozol is currently on the Editorial Board of Greater Good Magazine, published by the Greater Good Science Center of the University of California, Berkeley. Kozol's contributions include the interpretation of scientific research into the roots of compassion, altruism, and peaceful human relationships.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• MEF
• Jonathan
• Kozol
• racism
• race
• education
• kids
• children
• segregation

[Voicewithin74]

That is true about the medical waste being burned in the south bronx. I live in the bronx and I have been in that area and I have to say it does smell really bad and most of the kids in the school in that area do suffer from asthma. They can't move beacuse rents are too high NYC sad.

[EddyARB]

The rent is too damn high.

[Elesparto]

This is all by design on a massive scale by North American and European racists who create these conditions to justify their world view of as an intelligent superior race needing to lord over Blacks and Hispanics and some others. It is the elite hard at work making sure everyone stays in their place on the pyramid--so called minorities mustn't think because you don't have that capacity they say--and I say we are a majority and can out think your best any day...and your IQ test is a fraud...

[zblackrook]

@tiana1017 - Lanngston Hughes poem that he was referring to had to do with "Landlords" when I find the title I'll let you know. The reason he was fired was because in the school (black predomonated), he had made the children feel uncomfortable by telling them the truth, and the board just was'nt having that, plain and simple uh...

[rdeltoro39]

"A Dream Deferred" is the name of the poem.

[janeleone]

I'm from Bayonne and have serious asthma. I was in the hospital constantly and close to death.  Sadly, even outside in "clean" suburban style cities outside NYC like Hoboken and Bayonne, it's still asthma and cancer central. And sadly still, the rents in Bayonne are absolutely ridiculous. you can't find a 3 bedroom apt. for anywhere under $1500 dollars. You can live in any variety of 2 bedrm hole in the walls for $1000 a month. The cure is to get out of the cesspool like I did, move.

[tiana1017]

why was he fired for teaching a Langston Hughes poem? I don't understand and does anyone know the poem he used from Langston?