Educational justice advocate Jonathan Kozol speaks as part of FYE
People from near and far turn out to hear Kozol's passion for education equity
by Elizabet Travis, A'05 Intern in the Offices of Public Affairs and Publications
After graduating from Harvard University with a degree in English literature, Jonathan Kozol received a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford to continue his studies. Kozol left the world of "tweed-and-gray-flannel" for Europe where he traveled with authors and artists before returning to the United States. Upon his return in 1964, and with, "nothing to do with a degree in English literature," Kozol began searching for a job. Inspired by the Freedom Rides that were beginning at this time, he took a job at a Freedom School in Boston. He became a substitute teacher in one of the poorest urban neighborhoods in the city. He tried to bring more recent literature and art into the school system, but was fired after reading to one of his classes a Langston Hughes poem titled, "What Happens to a Dream Deferred?" After this incident, Kozol began to ask himself this very question after seeing many of America's children being thrown away and never given the chance to dream.
Kozol spoke about the disparities within the public school system at the College of Arts and Sciences First-Year Experience event. He made it clear that the urban public schools of the 1960s and the schools today are very similar: the disparities are money and race. "If there are amazing graces on this earth," Kozol said, "I believe that they are these good children sent to us by God and not yet soiled by the knowledge that their nation does not love them." Kozol combines his teaching with activism in order to bring these issues to the consciousness of a nation that "is still separate and unequal."
In his address, attended by nearly 1,200 students and members of the community at Roussel Hall with a video feed to Nunemaker Auditorium, Kozol spoke passionately about how Americans often feel the problems of education are being handled by our politicians. However, children are left hungry, uneducated, and without resources. What the government has imposed, he emphasized, is instituted tests that, "without equality bludgeon children and humiliate their teachers and principles." This testing has become the basis upon which children from poorer neighborhoods are taught. Teachers have begun to organize classrooms to enforce drilling and memorization. "Happy, loving teachers will soon be replaced by militant disciplinarians who want to pass children on to rid themselves of them," Kozol said. Children are no longer treated as developing minds, but rather as products. "Education and training are not the same. We train people to obey orders; we educate children to ask questions," he explained.
Kozol ended his speech with an anecdote about the time he invited television icon Mr. Rogers into a neighborhood in the Bronx where he was teaching. He said, "People will try and tell you that these children are different. They were just as happy to see Mr. Rogers as any other children. It is the people in charge of the public schools that decide what they become."
Kozol pleaded with Loyola students to take advantage of their education and to appreciate life. He said, "Don't let the grown-up world tell you it's dangerous, not sensible." Kozol advocates that people should do what they feel passionate about, not simply what is safe. Kozol will return to New Orleans in February 2005 to discuss the city's education dilemmas with civic leaders.
