A great deal has been written in recent years about the purported lack of motivation in the children of the Negro ghettos. Little in my experience supports this, yet the phrase has been repeated endlessly, and the blame in almost all cases is placed somewhere outside the classroom.
Interpretation
The quote challenges the notion that children from disadvantaged backgrounds lack motivation, suggesting that external factors, rather than the children themselves, are often blamed.
Jonathan Kozol's quote reflects on the common narrative surrounding children from impoverished neighborhoods, specifically those within Negro ghettos, which posits that they lack motivation. Kozol argues that this narrative is misleading and that it is often used to deflect responsibility away from the educational system and societal structures that contribute to these children's circumstances. By suggesting that the blame is misplaced, he calls for a deeper examination of the systemic issues at play rather than accepting superficial explanations.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about educational reform and the challenges faced by students from underprivileged backgrounds.
Schooling should not be left to the whim or wealth of village elders. I believe that we should fund all schools in the U.S. with our national resources. All these kids are being educated to be Americans, not citizens of Minneapolis or San Francisco.
An awful lot of people come to college with this strange idea that there's no longer segregation in America's schools, that our schools are basically equal; neither of these things is true.
Hypersegregated inner-city schools - in which one finds no more than five or ten white children, at the very most, within a student population of as many as 3,000 - are the norm, not the exception, in most northern urban areas today.
I wrote the first book, and I thought people would say: 'Separate and unequal schools in the City of Boston? I didn't know that. Let's go out and fix it.'
The trouble is not that schools don't work; they do. They're excellent machines for achieving historically accepted purposes. In suburban schools are children of the rich, who grow up to privilege and anesthetic oblivion to pain - and who then use the servants produced by ghetto schools.
Children are not simply commodities to be herded into line and trained for the jobs that white people who live in segregated neighborhoods have available.
Every good journalist is aware that his trade may one day go the way of phrenology-and, what's more, the population will hardly protest the extinction.
Reading has always been life unwrapped to me, a way of understanding the world and understanding myself through both the unknown and the everyday. If being a parent consists often of passing along chunks of ourselves to unwitting-often unwilling-recipients, then books are, for me, one of the simplest and most sure-fire ways of doing that.
Some kids win the lottery at birth; far too many don't - and most people have a hard time catching up over the rest of their lives. Children raised in disadvantaged environments are not only much less likely to succeed in school or in society, but they are also much less likely to be healthy adults.
Just like becoming an expert in wine, you learn by drinking it, the best you can afford.
Intelligence and proper education will give you independence of spirit.
Children who have an education grow up to lead healthier lives - earn higher income, take better care of their families, contribute to their economies.
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