In many of the high schools in the South Bronx, more children will end up in prison than will go to college.
Interpretation
The quote points out the stark reality of educational and social challenges faced by children in the South Bronx.
This quote by Jonathan Kozol highlights the alarming situation in many high schools in the South Bronx, where systemic issues result in a greater likelihood of children ending up in prison rather than pursuing higher education. It underscores the profound impact of socioeconomic factors and the urgent need for reform in the education and justice systems to ensure that every child has the opportunity to succeed and thrive.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the education reform needed in struggling communities.
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.
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.
I decided to teach because I think that any person who studies philosophy has to be involved actively.
The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.
We must therefore turn to the child as to the key to the fate of our future life.
Africans and persons of African descent must assume the primary responsibility and leadership in historical research....if we are to continue to leave practically all important historical research and writing concerning the black race to the white man, then we must be prepared to accept, uncomplainingly, the white man's point of view.
Kids' hearts are malleable, but once they gel it's hard to get them back the way they were.
The wrong things are predominantly stressed in the schools - things remote from the student's experience and need.
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