We are now operating a school system in America that's more segregated than at any time since the death of Martin Luther King.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the ongoing issue of segregation in the American school system, suggesting it has worsened since the civil rights era.
Jonathan Kozol's quote emphasizes the alarming reality of increased segregation in American schools, which he argues is a regression from the progress made during the civil rights movement, particularly following the work of Martin Luther King Jr. It serves as a critique of the current educational policies and social structures that perpetuate inequality and division among students, drawing attention to the need for reform in order to provide equitable education for all children.
In practice
During a school board meeting discussing educational policies.
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.
The test of good education is seeing how it behaves in a fight.
It is intolerable that around 1 in 5 of the world's adults are illiterate. How can we build equitable information societies or thriving democracies if so many remain without the basic tools of literacy?
One principle problem of educating software engineers is that they will not use a new method until they believe it works and, more importantly, that they will not believe the method will work until they see it for themselves.
A man's grammar, like Caesar's wife, must not only be pure, but above suspicion of impurity.
The hardest thing to teach young writers is that it's wonderful to tell your truth. And that's what you should do. But it damn well better be beautiful.
If you're an adult and you choose not to believe in science, fine, but please don't prevent your children from learning about it and letting them draw their own conclusions.
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