5 Sentences on the Big Picture
In chapter 8, Kozol expresses many "False Promises" that the government and many compensatory programs make to try "fix" the school systems. These compensatory programs in reality just pay schools more money if the students improve and achieve higher test scores. He even touches on how many schools cheated on standardized testing and lied about their drop out rate in response to these such efforts to "fix" the school system. Kozol repeatedly shares how the government continues to ignore the segregation issue that is still so prevalent in our school systems today. Kozol expresses in the last chapter of the hope that is still alive in our school systems today, and how there are teachers who bring beauty to a child's education, valuing their students and letting them grow in their learning abilities and gifts.
4 Key Passages
"I have a habit of keeping almost every press release, government publication, or promotional brochure... that have heralded exciting-sounding strategies and projects for the transformation of the radical improvement of our nation's inner-city schools.. if you ever had the will to sit down ... and read through these publications and examine carefully the claims and promises that each have made... the promises we hear today of new and even better ways to guarantee successful outcomes in our nation's segregated and unequal public schools will one day be reviewed with the same sense of disappointment, if not irony" (191 - 192).
"There is this inclination to avert our eyes from the pervasive injuries inflicted upon the students by our acquiescence in a dual system and to convey the tantalizing notion that the problems of this system can be superseded somehow by a faith in miracles embodied in dynamic and distinctive individuals" (200).
"The efficiency agenda and the notion that our public schools exist primarily to give the business sector what it asks for, or believes it needs, are anything but new; and the racially embarrassing beliefs by which these notions were accompanied a century ago, although widely disavowed today, are with us still" (214).
"Teachers and principals should not permit the beautiful profession that have chosen to be redefined by those who know far less than they about the hearts of children" (299).
3 Key Terms
Chapter 8 talks about the movement known as "Effective Schools". These were often "introduced in urban districts as alternatives to integration efforts" (192). All of these drew attention from the media but never really changed or helped to desegregate schools.
The term "turnaround" to promote a change in the school really was "just an avalanche of words and short-term measures that temporarily establish a degree of calm within the school and sometimes bring a sudden spike in test results or graduation rates, although the academic gains more frequently than not turn out to be short-lived and, in some cases, they have proven to be spurious" (199).
Kozol talks about the "treasured places" where teachers love their job, value children equally, and don't stress standardized testing (300).
2 Connections
I agree with Kozol's stance on being fed up with "false promises" in changing our school systems. I often hear of so many strategies that will work and end up staying the same or making things worse. It is important for people to present attainable goals and not rush into change too fast.
I also connected with the hope of such "treasured" schools and teachers. I went to an elementary school where teachers truly loved their students and didn't put the focus on passing a standardized test. In fact this inspired me to want to become a teacher. I am reminded of why I am so passionate about teaching and even may want to teach in the same elementary school I attended.
1 Question
"Why do you think many leaders and politicians make such false promises on changing the American Education System?"
I love your question. The simple answer is that they are not held accountable by the people who elect them (US). When we embrace the responsibility to hold our elected officials accountable it is then that they will be accountable. When we as teachers become not only active inside of our classrooms but also in our communities we will be heard by the policy-makers and quite frankly feared by those who depend upon us for the votes that keep them in office.
ReplyDeleteIn response to some of your questions:
It does seem odd that in the richest nation with the most well educated population that we would actually still allow an achievement, opportunity, economic gap to exist in our schools and communities. Essentially it comes down to priorities. We should ask ourselves each day "what have I done today to close the gap between the haves and have nots."
I live by the mantra - "think globally - act locally." If each of us were to embrace this philosophy the "local would become the global."