3 - School Effects

Summary

kozol's (1992) stark account of the extremes of wealth and poverty in America's school system exposed major inequalities in public schooling. He contrasted schools serving inner city children with those serving more affluent populations in selected cities. Of one school in Chicago, he wrote:

Teachers use materials in class long since thrown out in most suburban schools. Slow readers in an eighth grade history class are taught from 15-year-old textbooks in which Richard Nixon is still president. There are no science labs, no art or music teachers. Soap, paper towels and toilet paper are in short supply. There are two working bathrooms for some 700 children.

(1992, p. 63)

He quoted a “permanent sub” (i.e., a long-term substitute teacher used to keep personnel costs down) who teaches in this school: “It was my turn. I have a room of 39 overage, unmotivated sixth and seventh graders. … I am not prepared for this. I have absolutely no idea what to do” (1992, p. 64). Kozol offered an account of a different teacher in the same school:

Three years ago this teacher received “official warning” at another elementary school. Transferred here, but finding herself unable to control the class, she was removed in March. Instead of firing her, however, the principal returned her to the children for their morning reading class. […]