by Drew Price

Created on: February 28, 2009

When teaching in a suburban school district that has fewer than 10% minority students, it is easy to forget the plight that faces other schools all over the nation. In Shame of the Nation, Jonathan Kozol addresses several issues involving how segregated schools still exist today and the students suffer the consequences.

I was lucky enough to attend a high school that included about 50% minority students. The town I grew up in was flanked by a military base; therefore, as a white child I grew up playing with children from many different backgrounds, and it made no difference to me. As I progressed through school, I sat side by side with students who were different races, religions, socio-economic backgrounds and learned with them and, at times, I learned from them. It has been my experience that all students benefit when learning in an integrated classroom.

It is because my own positive experiences going to school and playing sports with all types of people that I am able to share Kozol's feeling of shame towards what is happening in some of our schools. Kozol pointed out the ironic fact that many schools that are named after civil rights leaders who fought for equality such as Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King Jr., or Rosa Parks are often schools that segregated. I was touched by the little girl who was quoted saying "it's as if you have been put in a garage where, if they don't have room for something but aren't sure they should throw it out." Putting impressionable children into that type of environment can cripple them in many different ways.

The hypocrisy that underlies these problems is almost unbelievable. When it comes to issues of funding, schools are told that throwing money at problems will not fix them. These excuses are given by law makers who probably pay money for their children to be privately educated. Kozol quotes a former principal from New York City Public Schools "I'll believe money doesn't count the day rich people stop spending so much on their own children." Of course money is not the answer to problems, but the fact that monies are not allocated fairly to all schools is the problem.

In my opinion the hypocrisy becomes more blatant when we begin to blame the students, and holding them solely accountable for low achievement when it is the system that has failed them. In what world does it make sense to withhold affordable pre-school education to poor families who probably need it most? How can we deny these students the same opportunities others get and hold them to the same standards? It is a wonder that some of these students make it through school and into college. Without a doubt dedicated teachers, are to thank for those miracles.

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