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Alice's Reviews > Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools
by
by
*FIRST IMPRESSION*
Is this just going to be Mama Might Be Better Off Dead: The Education Chapter?
*HALFWAY THROUGH*
Answer to the question above: yes.
Look, Mr. Kozol, I'm not anti-expose, but I hate being confronted with a tragic and intractable problem to which the author presents no viable solution. Sure, it's important - and crucial - to acknowledge the inequities, to publicize them. But Kozol's hortatory exclamations of "yes, let's equalize the money" do little, if anything at all, toward building the public and political will to make that a realistic goal.
Kozol wants out of the system completely, and understandably so. It's an unfair system that puts the power in the hands of those who have lived in the lap of luxury, who have no interest in lifting up those who have not. (People like me, for instance. I went to public school in Great Neck, one of the communities Kozol repeatedly cites [villifies?] for its astronomical expenditures per student.)
But you can't so easily opt out of the system. Self interest is too powerful. And if you can't opt out, and you can't present a viable solution within the system, then what have you accomplished?
I'm hoping Kozol presents an answer somewhere in the rest of this book...
*ALMOST DONE, BUT SO GOD DAMN FRUSTRATED*
Ok, Mr. Kozol. You want to be blunt. That's great. I'll be blunt too.
All the excuses that we rich Great Neck folks present in opposition to cross-busing, or equalization of funding - the bullshit argument that money doesn't matter, or the racist one that Those People are lacking in family values, or the pretextual one that local control is important - are just that: excuses.
What our real argument is: Why should our money - even if it's an "inheritance" to which we, we winners in this race, feel entitled - go to improve your kid's education? Why should your self-interest trump my self-interest? Ultimately, we pay lip service to equality, because, once ahead, it's not in our interest to aim for equality anymore.
Is Kozol saying that it is in our interest? That it should be in our interest? Is he saying screw our interest, this is what's good for society? And, you know, whatever he is saying doesn't make one iota of a difference, because however troubled those who read his book will feel, we will not be troubled enough - into action.
*FINALLY DONE*
This paragraph sums up neatly why the book is important, but also supremely frustrating:
"There is a deep-seated reverence for fair play in the United States, and in many areas of life we see the consequences in a genuine distaste for loaded dice; but this is not the case in education, health care, or inheritance of wealth. In these elemental areas we want the game to be unfair and we have made it so; and IT WILL LIKELY SO REMAIN" (emphasis added).
Is this just going to be Mama Might Be Better Off Dead: The Education Chapter?
*HALFWAY THROUGH*
Answer to the question above: yes.
Look, Mr. Kozol, I'm not anti-expose, but I hate being confronted with a tragic and intractable problem to which the author presents no viable solution. Sure, it's important - and crucial - to acknowledge the inequities, to publicize them. But Kozol's hortatory exclamations of "yes, let's equalize the money" do little, if anything at all, toward building the public and political will to make that a realistic goal.
Kozol wants out of the system completely, and understandably so. It's an unfair system that puts the power in the hands of those who have lived in the lap of luxury, who have no interest in lifting up those who have not. (People like me, for instance. I went to public school in Great Neck, one of the communities Kozol repeatedly cites [villifies?] for its astronomical expenditures per student.)
But you can't so easily opt out of the system. Self interest is too powerful. And if you can't opt out, and you can't present a viable solution within the system, then what have you accomplished?
I'm hoping Kozol presents an answer somewhere in the rest of this book...
*ALMOST DONE, BUT SO GOD DAMN FRUSTRATED*
Ok, Mr. Kozol. You want to be blunt. That's great. I'll be blunt too.
All the excuses that we rich Great Neck folks present in opposition to cross-busing, or equalization of funding - the bullshit argument that money doesn't matter, or the racist one that Those People are lacking in family values, or the pretextual one that local control is important - are just that: excuses.
What our real argument is: Why should our money - even if it's an "inheritance" to which we, we winners in this race, feel entitled - go to improve your kid's education? Why should your self-interest trump my self-interest? Ultimately, we pay lip service to equality, because, once ahead, it's not in our interest to aim for equality anymore.
Is Kozol saying that it is in our interest? That it should be in our interest? Is he saying screw our interest, this is what's good for society? And, you know, whatever he is saying doesn't make one iota of a difference, because however troubled those who read his book will feel, we will not be troubled enough - into action.
*FINALLY DONE*
This paragraph sums up neatly why the book is important, but also supremely frustrating:
"There is a deep-seated reverence for fair play in the United States, and in many areas of life we see the consequences in a genuine distaste for loaded dice; but this is not the case in education, health care, or inheritance of wealth. In these elemental areas we want the game to be unfair and we have made it so; and IT WILL LIKELY SO REMAIN" (emphasis added).
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Reading Progress
June 12, 2008
– Shelved
Started Reading
June 25, 2008
– Shelved as:
read-in-2008
June 25, 2008
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Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-2 of 2 (2 new)
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Thank you for the frank review. You've answered my question. I find these books illuminating and all, but utterly depressing. Most of these books simply throw light on the subject and then basically lay out why nothing is going to change, or that things are just too systemically corrupt. I often feel that if that is the case, what is the point of reading the book? I'm already depressed about the world. Without presenting a real thorough look at the obstacles in the path to change and how to overcome them, or how to challenge the people who put them there, these investigative works seem incomplete. I don't think any of us are naive enough to think the education system is actually working for everyone.
The real argument: Who gets to decide which kid is more worthy of a fair and equal education? Seems we settled that in the 60s. Why should your self-interest trump my child's best-interest?