America's broken promise

Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities shines the light on America's public school system. He shows the world what students in underserved communities really went through every day and how we had given up on the education of our future generation. Kozol is able to prove that America's Promise is nothing but a faulty, unachievable and intangible idea.
As a teacher, Goldberg has a credible argument; however he is mistaken with some of his views. He argues that Kozol fails to mention the fact that there are other issues besides poverty going on in the lives of these students. I believe Kozol and Goldberg differ on this view because Goldberg argues that these issues, along with everything else, cause students to do poorly in school while Kozol, I believe, argues that those are the consequences of underserved education. Both have credible arguments however Kozol does mention outside issues throughout the book. "You can take them out of the environment, but you can't take the environment out of them" (Kozol 127). He does not dance around the fact that the majority of these children have many underlying issues going on in their home.
Kozol does am amazing job of making his audience feel angry toward the school systems and sympathetic towards the children. "We have a school in East St. Louis named for Dr. King. The school is full of sewer water and the doors are locked with chains. Every student in that school is black. It's like a terrible joke on history" (Kozol 35). Knowing who that fourteen-year-old is and knowing her story makes that quote extremely powerful. This book is full of personal stories, especially from young children, who are forced to live in a deprived atmosphere but have no choice but to deal with it until they drop out because of pregnancies or drugs. The tone of many in this book is that those children have no future anyway, and are just waiting to be another statistic.
Although Kozol is able to connect with his audience, Goldberg is correct in saying that Kozol misleads the reader into thinking the solution is more funding for these schools. I believe Kozol missed a great opportunity because he is able to make the readers want to do something about this injustice; to stand up and take action; but he is not able to direct them to the resources they would need to make that possible. Money is still money, and extremely important for any school, but he does not mention other ways to get involved.
I do, however, commend Kozol for writing such an influential book. Because of his book, there are so many people who are able to do something about the injustices. If it was not for this book, I would not have known most of the schools mentioned even existed. Kozol provided us with a great stepping stone and an even greater initiative to take action about the prejudice and inequality that was going on in America's schools.

University Review of Savage inequalities

Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools, by Jonathan Kozol's is not a pleasure read. While reading this book I found myself at times depressed, angered, and frustrated by its content. The question of why racial segregation still exists today in many of American's schools is boldly and compelling asked by Kozol. The evidence provided in the this book may be from over twenty years ago, but unfortunately the statistics of 1988 are as accurate today, 2010 as it was then, and in some cases things have become worse. Repeatedly Kozol presents us with an example of a school where minorities are forced to attend schools of unimaginable conditions, schools so dilapidated that they have literally been condemned. This book though written a few years ago strikes at the heart of today's controversies in America's school system. Is our system fair? According to Jonathon Kozol it's not even close! The schools described by him in different cities across America are heartbreaking in their bleaknness and terrifying in their hopelessness. Kozol paints a portrait of the new American landscape where people with wealth distance themselves from the problem and insulate their children from poverty. How do we get our schools more equal? Can money save them? Can more federal government control save our school system? This is a great book for people who care about our education system. It does a great job of asking a lot of important questions and backing up these questions with strong evidence, discussing both sides of the major opinions of these questions. The major criticism I have for this book is its lack of solutions for the multitude of problems it brings are focus too. After reading the book I was left with a feeling of hopelessness which the book offered no relief for. This criticism should not deter anyone who cares about this country, its children, and the inequalities of our society from reading this book. Though it never offers a clear answer to the questions it asks it does lead us to the source of what's causing these problems. The flawed way by which this country funds its public schools is at the center of the book, and lies somewhere close to the solution. I couldn't imagine taking part in a discussion of American schools without having been exposed to this book. This book was a real eye-opener, exposing the wretched conditions of inner-city schools in America. I think it should be required reading for every person in this country, because it is an issue that receives little if any attention. I would never have known how bad the system is for some cities without reading this book.

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Everyone who values education should read this book.

I had to read this book for a university class, but I am glad I did. It was written in 1991, so it definitely is due updating, but it was heartbreaking to read about how unequal public school funding was in the 1990's. We must do better for our children!