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Letters to a Young Teacher
“This remarkable book is a testament to teachers who not only respect and advocate for children on a daily basis but who are the necessary guardians of the spirit. Every citizen who cares about the future of our children ought to read this.”—Eric Carle, author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and other classic works for children
“Kozol’s love for his students is as joyful and genuine as his critiques of the system are severe. He doesn’t pull punches.”— The Washington Post
In these affectionate letters to Francesca, a first grade teacher at an inner-city school in Boston, Jonathan Kozol vividly describes his repeated visits to her classroom while, under Francesca’s likably irreverent questioning, he also reveals his own most personal stories of the years that he has spent in public schools.
Letters to a Young Teacher reignites a number of the controversial issues Jonathan has powerfully addressed in his bestselling The Shame of the Nation and On Being a Teacher : the mania of high-stakes testing that turns many classrooms into test-prep factories where spontaneity and critical intelligence are no longer valued, the invasion of our public schools by predatory private corporations, and the inequalities of urban schools that are once again almost as segregated as they were a century ago.
But most of all, these letters are rich with the happiness of teaching children, the curiosity and jubilant excitement children bring into the classroom at an early age, and their ability to overcome their insecurities when they are in the hands of an adoring and hard-working teacher.
“Kozol’s love for his students is as joyful and genuine as his critiques of the system are severe. He doesn’t pull punches.”— The Washington Post
In these affectionate letters to Francesca, a first grade teacher at an inner-city school in Boston, Jonathan Kozol vividly describes his repeated visits to her classroom while, under Francesca’s likably irreverent questioning, he also reveals his own most personal stories of the years that he has spent in public schools.
Letters to a Young Teacher reignites a number of the controversial issues Jonathan has powerfully addressed in his bestselling The Shame of the Nation and On Being a Teacher : the mania of high-stakes testing that turns many classrooms into test-prep factories where spontaneity and critical intelligence are no longer valued, the invasion of our public schools by predatory private corporations, and the inequalities of urban schools that are once again almost as segregated as they were a century ago.
But most of all, these letters are rich with the happiness of teaching children, the curiosity and jubilant excitement children bring into the classroom at an early age, and their ability to overcome their insecurities when they are in the hands of an adoring and hard-working teacher.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
106 people are currently reading
2210 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Kozol
49 books536 followersJonathan Kozol is a non-fiction writer, educator, and activist best known for his work towards reforming American public schools. Upon graduating from Harvard, he received a Rhodes scholarship. After returning to the United States, Kozol became a teacher in the Boston Public Schools, until he was fired for teaching a Langston Hughes poem. Kozol has held two Guggenheim Fellowships, has twice been a fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation, and has also received fellowships from the Field and Ford Foundations. Most recently, Kozol has founded and is running a non-profit called Education Action. The group is dedicated to grassroots organizing of teachers across the country who wish to push back against NCLB and the most recent Supreme Court decision on desegregation, and to help create a single, excellent, unified system of American public schools.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 195 reviews
June 18, 2008
Meh. I agree with Kozol on so many points, but I just couldn't stomach how mutually congratulatory he and this newbie teacher were. An honest account of the difficulties and ambiguities in starting to teach would have been more helpful and rewarding to read.
September 13, 2007
This was a very quick read. Not so much because Kozol's writing is to easy and light but because I had read it before. Like, in his OTHER books.
In the beginning of the book, he tells you that these "letters to Francesca" are edited to include some snippets of his previous books on educational policy (Shame of a Nation)and poverty in the Bronx (Amazing Grace). While I have not read Savage Inequalities, I feel like I don't really have to, now that Kozol has conveniently packed all of his ideas in a simpler, letter format book.
Do I think it flows? No, not really. It feels like these letters are a front for what it really is: an abridged version of his previous books. Does that make his opinions and passion for educational policy less important? Of course not, I respect his ideas and agree with him on many issues but really, this book is not what I was expecting. I guess I was expecting something along the lines of Teacher Man (but hopefully better).
Overall Grade: 3
In the beginning of the book, he tells you that these "letters to Francesca" are edited to include some snippets of his previous books on educational policy (Shame of a Nation)and poverty in the Bronx (Amazing Grace). While I have not read Savage Inequalities, I feel like I don't really have to, now that Kozol has conveniently packed all of his ideas in a simpler, letter format book.
Do I think it flows? No, not really. It feels like these letters are a front for what it really is: an abridged version of his previous books. Does that make his opinions and passion for educational policy less important? Of course not, I respect his ideas and agree with him on many issues but really, this book is not what I was expecting. I guess I was expecting something along the lines of Teacher Man (but hopefully better).
Overall Grade: 3
August 10, 2025
I picked up this book earlier this week at The Museum of Fond Memories in Birmingham. It was second in a tall stack of miscellaneous titles on writing and education. When I saw the cover, I immediately thought of a good friend of mine who is a young teacher. “This would be perfect for him,” I said—even though he probably won’t read it.
I flipped through a few pages, decided it would be a good read, and went to the counter to purchase it (thanks, Mr. Reed).
Even though I bought it for my friend, I wanted to make sure someone had a chance to enjoy the words on the page. And—oh my goodness—this book was such an interesting and rewarding read. (And I don’t even work for a K-12 school system.) Kozol shares so many anecdotes and offers so much encouragement to “Francesca” (and, I’m sure, to any other teacher who reads it). Sometimes, it felt like it was too much encouragement. But I’m sure in the context it was helpful.
The book is a collection of letters Kozol wrote to a young first-grade teacher named “Francesca,” who worked at an inner-city school in Boston. His love for children—especially those in the inner city—education, and fellow educators is evident throughout. I am confident that everyone he spent time with, whether in person or through his writing, walked away more encouraged about the future of American education.
“Even in the most adverse conditions, the work of a good teacher ought to be an act of stalwart celebration. It is in that sense of celebration, in my own belief at least, that teachers who have chosen out of love to work with children find their ultimate reward.”
I flipped through a few pages, decided it would be a good read, and went to the counter to purchase it (thanks, Mr. Reed).
Even though I bought it for my friend, I wanted to make sure someone had a chance to enjoy the words on the page. And—oh my goodness—this book was such an interesting and rewarding read. (And I don’t even work for a K-12 school system.) Kozol shares so many anecdotes and offers so much encouragement to “Francesca” (and, I’m sure, to any other teacher who reads it). Sometimes, it felt like it was too much encouragement. But I’m sure in the context it was helpful.
The book is a collection of letters Kozol wrote to a young first-grade teacher named “Francesca,” who worked at an inner-city school in Boston. His love for children—especially those in the inner city—education, and fellow educators is evident throughout. I am confident that everyone he spent time with, whether in person or through his writing, walked away more encouraged about the future of American education.
“Even in the most adverse conditions, the work of a good teacher ought to be an act of stalwart celebration. It is in that sense of celebration, in my own belief at least, that teachers who have chosen out of love to work with children find their ultimate reward.”
November 28, 2021
Though I’m not a k-12 teacher, this still has some important lessons for us all. Good read.
January 22, 2025
if you haven’t heard of or read Shame of the Nation and you are a teacher in an urban setting please do yourself a favor and read it next. Jonathan Kozol describes the situations of adversity that students in public schools face and how teachers play an important part in those student's journey. Listening to Kozol’s insight and wisdom about the challenges that students face in public education, especially underfunded schools, is so important. as teachers we need to constantly fight for equity and fairness in the classroom. though I feel like I resonated more with Shame of the Nation this book is right up there. I need more people to recognize the inequalities in public education.
August 10, 2016
Causal
"They could see that I did not condemn them for the chaos and confusion they been through, because I told them flatly that they had been treated in a way that I thought unforgivable." [pg. 11]
"No curriculum, no rules, no list of "standards," no externally established regimens, however good or wise they may appear to some, can substitute for this. That bond of trust and tenderness comes first. Without that, everything is merely dutiful-and, generally, deadening. It is not for dutiful aridity that people who love children become teachers." [pg. 19]
"Nonetheless, if there's a lesson to be learned from this experience with you, and yours with him-because relationships like these always have struck me as a kind of complicated and mysterious duet between a teacher and a very vulnerable child-it may be simply this: none of us should make the error of assuming that a child who is hostile to us at the start, or who retreats into a sullenness and silence or sarcastic disregard for everything that's going on around him in the room, does not have the will to learn, and plenty of interesting stuff to teach us too, if we are willing to invest the time in the inventiveness to penetrate is seemingly implacable Believe that grown-ups do not mean him well and that, if he trusts us, we will probably betray or disappoint him." [pg. 66]
"The secret curriculum in almost any class,in my believe, is not the message that is written in a lesson plan or a specific book but the message of implicit skepticism or, conversely, the passivity or acquiescence that is written in the teacher's eyes and in the multitude of other ways in which her critical intelligence, her reservations about given truths, or else the absence of these inclinations and these capabilities, are quite revealed. Education, no matter what the rulebook say, is never absolutely neutral. We either teach our children it's okay to write and talk about things they think to be the truth or else we teach them that it's more acceptable to silence their beliefs, or even not to have beliefs but to settle for official truths that someone else has carefully prepared for them. " [pg. 86]
"There's something deeply hypocritical in a society that holds a child only eight or nine years old accountable for her performance on a high-stakes standardized exam but does not hold the Congress and the president accountable for robbing her of what they gave it their own kids six or seven years before." [pg. 116]
"The charm and innocence of the story can't be valued for themselves. Instead, they have to be exploited for an external purpose. So, apart from all the other thefts they undergo, children in these schools are robbed of any understanding that the reason, certainly the best of reasons, human beings read books is for the pleasure that they give us." [pg. 118]
"The children of the suburbs learn to think and to interrogate reality; the inner-city kids meanwhile are trained for nonreflective acquiescence. One race and social class is educated for the exploration of ideas and for political sagacity and future economic power; the other is prepared for intellectual subordination." [pg. 121]
"I think we have an obligation to empower those we teach to understand that this democracy is very much a work in progress and that if they can't achieve the skills to take an active role as citizens in struggles to bring progress in their grown-up years, the injustices they suffer now will never change." [pg. 155]
"So long as myths and misconceptions about equal education remain on examined in the schools that serve the poor, these kids are left to wrestle with the crippling belief that their repeated failings in comparison with affluent white children are entirely the result of an inherent defect in their character or cultural inheritance, a lack of will, a lack of basic drive and normal aspiration, or, as many have no choice but to believe, a deficit in their intelligence." [pg. 164]
"Visitors from outside these neighborhoods Who witnessed confrontations like this often to make the unkind observation that "the students act like animals. "But if you treat these kids like animals, herding them along for squalid feedings like so many cattle rather than providing them with even a minimal civility, it's not surprising to me that they act accordingly." [pg. 175]
"I believe aesthetics count a great deal in the education of our children. Beautiful surroundings refine the souls of children. Ugly surroundings coarsen their mentalities. It's one of the most decisive ways by which we draw the line of caste and class between two very different sectors of our student population." [pg. 177]
"They could see that I did not condemn them for the chaos and confusion they been through, because I told them flatly that they had been treated in a way that I thought unforgivable." [pg. 11]
"No curriculum, no rules, no list of "standards," no externally established regimens, however good or wise they may appear to some, can substitute for this. That bond of trust and tenderness comes first. Without that, everything is merely dutiful-and, generally, deadening. It is not for dutiful aridity that people who love children become teachers." [pg. 19]
"Nonetheless, if there's a lesson to be learned from this experience with you, and yours with him-because relationships like these always have struck me as a kind of complicated and mysterious duet between a teacher and a very vulnerable child-it may be simply this: none of us should make the error of assuming that a child who is hostile to us at the start, or who retreats into a sullenness and silence or sarcastic disregard for everything that's going on around him in the room, does not have the will to learn, and plenty of interesting stuff to teach us too, if we are willing to invest the time in the inventiveness to penetrate is seemingly implacable Believe that grown-ups do not mean him well and that, if he trusts us, we will probably betray or disappoint him." [pg. 66]
"The secret curriculum in almost any class,in my believe, is not the message that is written in a lesson plan or a specific book but the message of implicit skepticism or, conversely, the passivity or acquiescence that is written in the teacher's eyes and in the multitude of other ways in which her critical intelligence, her reservations about given truths, or else the absence of these inclinations and these capabilities, are quite revealed. Education, no matter what the rulebook say, is never absolutely neutral. We either teach our children it's okay to write and talk about things they think to be the truth or else we teach them that it's more acceptable to silence their beliefs, or even not to have beliefs but to settle for official truths that someone else has carefully prepared for them. " [pg. 86]
"There's something deeply hypocritical in a society that holds a child only eight or nine years old accountable for her performance on a high-stakes standardized exam but does not hold the Congress and the president accountable for robbing her of what they gave it their own kids six or seven years before." [pg. 116]
"The charm and innocence of the story can't be valued for themselves. Instead, they have to be exploited for an external purpose. So, apart from all the other thefts they undergo, children in these schools are robbed of any understanding that the reason, certainly the best of reasons, human beings read books is for the pleasure that they give us." [pg. 118]
"The children of the suburbs learn to think and to interrogate reality; the inner-city kids meanwhile are trained for nonreflective acquiescence. One race and social class is educated for the exploration of ideas and for political sagacity and future economic power; the other is prepared for intellectual subordination." [pg. 121]
"I think we have an obligation to empower those we teach to understand that this democracy is very much a work in progress and that if they can't achieve the skills to take an active role as citizens in struggles to bring progress in their grown-up years, the injustices they suffer now will never change." [pg. 155]
"So long as myths and misconceptions about equal education remain on examined in the schools that serve the poor, these kids are left to wrestle with the crippling belief that their repeated failings in comparison with affluent white children are entirely the result of an inherent defect in their character or cultural inheritance, a lack of will, a lack of basic drive and normal aspiration, or, as many have no choice but to believe, a deficit in their intelligence." [pg. 164]
"Visitors from outside these neighborhoods Who witnessed confrontations like this often to make the unkind observation that "the students act like animals. "But if you treat these kids like animals, herding them along for squalid feedings like so many cattle rather than providing them with even a minimal civility, it's not surprising to me that they act accordingly." [pg. 175]
"I believe aesthetics count a great deal in the education of our children. Beautiful surroundings refine the souls of children. Ugly surroundings coarsen their mentalities. It's one of the most decisive ways by which we draw the line of caste and class between two very different sectors of our student population." [pg. 177]
April 16, 2023
At one point in this book, Kozol describes a letter he received from a school he had recently visited. The child’s name who sent the letter was Mario. Mario signed his letter, “from my heart to my eyes, Mario.”
I will now be signing all my letters as such. Thanks Mario.
I will now be signing all my letters as such. Thanks Mario.
June 7, 2018
When I first started reading, I was very excited. Kozol is a very respected writer and advocator, and I found his writing refreshing. In addition, since I'll be a first-year teacher in August, I need all the advice I can get.
Kozol certainly had great points: connect with families, encourage students' creativity, no vouchers, don't teach to standardized tests. However, I've heard all these before. I was also disappointed that he didn't offer a lot of practical solutions to the pitfalls he was listing. For example, he warned teachers not to rely too much on standardized tests, but he doesn't give any solutions for how to resist the pressure. He did offer one great tip: to find an older, more experienced teacher and rely on them as a mentor.
What I disliked the most about this book, though, was how critical of others Kozol was. He laments that teachers are boring, dull, unimaginative, defeatist, etc. He also complains about teacher conferences, principals, and new educational theories. I definitely understand the desire to address problematic attitudes. But after a while, it seemed as if Kozol just assumed the worst of others and considered himself above them. He also was very dismissive of suburban schools. For example, he wrote that students in suburban schools do not feel the pressure of standardized tests. This is definitely not true; I student taught in an affluent area and have seen many students burst into teachers when confronting standardized exams. He also only had a very negative attitude toward secondary education, going so far as to wishing we could get rid of middle schools. I'll be honest. This hurt my feelings, because I love middle school.
Perhaps one reason why I found all this so upsetting is because I couldn't help but take it personally. I picked up this book, because I wanted practical advice for my first year of teaching. However, Kozol was self-congratulatory throughout and Francesca, the teacher to whom he was writing, seemed as if she could do no wrong. I found this quite discouraging.
Kozol certainly had great points: connect with families, encourage students' creativity, no vouchers, don't teach to standardized tests. However, I've heard all these before. I was also disappointed that he didn't offer a lot of practical solutions to the pitfalls he was listing. For example, he warned teachers not to rely too much on standardized tests, but he doesn't give any solutions for how to resist the pressure. He did offer one great tip: to find an older, more experienced teacher and rely on them as a mentor.
What I disliked the most about this book, though, was how critical of others Kozol was. He laments that teachers are boring, dull, unimaginative, defeatist, etc. He also complains about teacher conferences, principals, and new educational theories. I definitely understand the desire to address problematic attitudes. But after a while, it seemed as if Kozol just assumed the worst of others and considered himself above them. He also was very dismissive of suburban schools. For example, he wrote that students in suburban schools do not feel the pressure of standardized tests. This is definitely not true; I student taught in an affluent area and have seen many students burst into teachers when confronting standardized exams. He also only had a very negative attitude toward secondary education, going so far as to wishing we could get rid of middle schools. I'll be honest. This hurt my feelings, because I love middle school.
Perhaps one reason why I found all this so upsetting is because I couldn't help but take it personally. I picked up this book, because I wanted practical advice for my first year of teaching. However, Kozol was self-congratulatory throughout and Francesca, the teacher to whom he was writing, seemed as if she could do no wrong. I found this quite discouraging.
May 5, 2008
I really was not that crazy about this book, which was my first full Jonathan Kozol read (previously I read excerpts of Savage Inequalities and expected this book to be more fact-heavy like that one). As a first year teacher in an urban school district, I thought I'd like Letters since it's basically a series of letters that Kozol sent to a first-year teacher in Boston throughout her first year of teaching. But, honestly, most of the book just seemed way too preachy to me.
Although parts of it were interesting (the stuff about standardized testing was particularly good), I found myself skimming most of it, especially towards the end. The book had little focus and I felt that it could have been edited down significantly. Plus, there were only so many times that I could handle Kozol getting up on his educational soap box before I felt like rolling my eyes. For most of the book he is describing what's really going on in American schools (for the worst) but it was difficult for me to feel a a whole lot of solidarity because he just didn't seem to offer a lot of hope or... something. I found it really strange that I agreed with most of his observations/thoughts on public education in American (except perhaps for his call to eliminate middle schools), yet I didn't really want to keep reading.
Although parts of it were interesting (the stuff about standardized testing was particularly good), I found myself skimming most of it, especially towards the end. The book had little focus and I felt that it could have been edited down significantly. Plus, there were only so many times that I could handle Kozol getting up on his educational soap box before I felt like rolling my eyes. For most of the book he is describing what's really going on in American schools (for the worst) but it was difficult for me to feel a a whole lot of solidarity because he just didn't seem to offer a lot of hope or... something. I found it really strange that I agreed with most of his observations/thoughts on public education in American (except perhaps for his call to eliminate middle schools), yet I didn't really want to keep reading.
August 23, 2008
Throughout the reading of this book I had a running dialogue in my head as though I was responding to Kozol, offering my two bits about the subject matters he touched upon. Although I did not agree with his view on some of the education issues he raised I did appreciate his impassioned stance and the depth of personal experience. Having said that, it was frustrating to me that he proposed no solutions. Much of his lamentation is legitimate but after several pages I thought, "Yeah, you're right. Now what?" I would have thought someone with over forty years of classroom experience would be capable of offering at least a few suggestions for reforming the public education system he so vehemently denounced. On a technical note, Kozol is quite fond of the long drawn-out hyphenated sentence, so much so that I often forgot what he started out saying by the time I came to the end of the hyphenated phrase, requiring me to reread the sentence in order to make sense of it. Nonetheless, I do believe it to be an important book for those in the education field, particularly those first starting out, to peruse.
October 12, 2023
I read this book as a companion to my post-baccalaureate teacher licensure program. I chose it on my own and I’m glad I happened to do so. It gave me so many things to think about, ideas to flesh out during this time of exploration and education. Kozol explores many aspects of the classroom work environment from relationships with students/administrators/other teachers to the political landscape of local, state, and federal governments. He is provocative and pragmatic, framing teaching as something both idyllic and burdensome. I came away feeling simultaneously inspired and prepared for battle.
August 2, 2009
I liked the beginning of this book...although from the start Kozol is too self-focused, then sure enough he switches over 2/3 through and it becomes a political soapbox. I was disappointed and realized there is still a need for an honest book like this one seemed to start out as, a mentoring book for a first-year teacher working in the urban setting. Maybe I'll have to write it some day, since Kozel failed.
January 7, 2024
thanks Dr. Hones!
August 2, 2024
Jonathan Kozol’s “Savage Inequalities” shook the world when it was released in 1991. He continued to write pedagogically-based books that served as hard-hitting exposes on the inequities in American school systems. “Letters to a Young Teacher” were simply the recordings of his correspondence with a nascent educator named Francesca. He encourages her, empathizes with her, and offers her perspectives, and proved a valid soothsayer on topics like education vouchers and the privatization of schools – in fact, this is the entire topic of chapter 11 which he titled, “The Single Worst, Most Dangerous Idea.”
One of the most potent passages about the inequities is this lengthy one where he describes “The Hortatory Lie” or “The Ultimate Lie” given to students: the lie of equal opportunity:
“...’The Hortatory Lie’, which gives the children in some of the worst, most poorly funded, and most hypersegregated public schools the relentless message that success or failure in their academic work is a matter wholly of their own self-will, their own determination, their own perseverance, and that the external world – the governor, the school board, the determination of the white society to keep them at a distance where they can’t contaminate the education of the middle class – has no role at all in preventing them from learning…
“In Seattle, for example, in a segregated school that bore the name of Thurgood Marshall, the principal had taken pains to make it very difficult for kids to learn who Thurgood Marshall was or what it is that makes him an important moral figure in our history. The principal’s reasoning, as I surmised, was that an honest recognition of the work of Justice Marshall in attempting to abolish racials segregation would have caused an undercurrent of persistent irony within a school that represented almost everything that Marshall had regarded as abhorrent…
“Instead of presenting Marshall as the lifelong warrior for justice that he was, therefore, the principal had altered his persona to that of some sort of middle-level corporate employee who exemplified the virtues of obedience to rules and regulations, good managerial abilities, self-discipline, and oldfashioned bootstrap values of self-help…
“If it’s up to ‘them,’ the message seems to be, it isn’t up to ‘us,’ which appears to sweep the deck of many possibly expensive obligations we many otherwise believe our nation needs to contemplate” (p. 161-162).
Validating Francesca and other teachers:
“I sometimes think that every education writer, every would-be education expert, and every politician who pontificates, as many do so condescendingly, about the ‘failings’ of the teachers in the front lines of our nation’s public schools ought to be obliged to come into a classroom once a year and teach the class, not just for an hour with the TV cameras watching but for an entire day, and find out what it’s like. It might at least impart some moderation of the disrespectful tone with which so many politicians speak of teachers” (p. 3).
His thoughts on standardized testing:
“I’m often disappointed, when I visit some of the allegedly sophisticated schools of education, to recognize how very little of the magic and the incandescent chemistry that forms between a truly gifted teacher and her children is conveyed to those who are about to come into our classrooms. Many of these schools of education have been taken over, to a troubling degree, by people who have little knowledge of the classroom but are technicians of a dry and mechanistic, often business-driven version of ‘proficiency and productivity.’ State accountability requirements, correlated closely with the needs and wishes of the corporate community, increasingly control the ethos and the aims of education that are offered to the students at some of these schools” (p. 4).
On parents who are difficult to deal with:
“Obviously, there will always be some parents who, for complicated reasons of their own, may not be responsive even to the best attempts a teacher makes in this regard. Still, I think it’s all too easy for young teachers, even quite unconsciously, to write off the parents who are not cooperative at first, instead of trying to discover why it is that some of them will not respond to messages that we send home or seem reluctant to show up for meetings that we schedule. One of the most common statements that I hear from first-year teachers is that parents of the children with the greatest problems are the ones who never seem to make it to class meetings, or to schoolwide meetings, or to individual appointments to which we invite them to discuss the challenges their children face. ‘She never shows up’ or ‘shows up late’ or ‘seems uncomfortable and edgy.’ Principals sometimes also note that these are the same parents who do not support the PTA or volunteer to help out with a school trip or… other school activities…
I always wish I could encourage teachers in these situations to reflect a little on the reasons why some of these parents are resistant to participating in a school’s activities and why, when they try to do so, many seem uneasy, even vaguely hostile, and reluctant to speak candidly to teachers. When I was a teacher… it soon became apparent that a number of such parents, who had been given a rockbottom education in some of the same schools 15 or 20 years before, looked upon these schools as places of remembered misery and failure and prolonged years of humiliation. So, even at the age of 28 or 35, they were still uncomfortable in coming to a school and were also insecure about their capacity for speaking cogently to teachers about literacy skills, for instance, which in many cases they themselves did not possess” (p. 22-23).
The brazenly racist remarks that he heard from school leaders and principals:
“...she made unkind remarks about the ‘culturally deficient values of the Negro parents’ who, she said, unlike the previous generation of white parents at the school, were ‘not committed to their children’s education” (p. 26).
On the continuing issue of segregation:
“I think you were being very honest when you said you feel as if you’re lying to your children if you leave these false impressions uncorrected and allow the class, essentially, to swallow the idea that segregation is a shameful piece of distant history for which our nation has absolved itself, rather than an ever-present aspect of the lives they lead and education they receive today. ‘Here we are in a public school with not a single white child in our class and only three white children in the school’s population. Hooray for Ruby Bridges and for Linda Brown and all the other brave black children of the South for having left us with a legacy of social justice in our public schools, even if this legacy has been completely, intentionally, ripped apart and shredded and abandoned in the years since all the kids we teach today were born!’” (p. 76).
“If I took a photo of the children that I meet in almost any of these schools, it would be indistinguishable from photos taken of the children in the all-black schools in Mississippi back in 1925 of 1930 – precisely the same photos that are reproduced in textbooks not in order to convince our children of the moral progress that our nation has made since. Teachers ‘are participating in deception of their students,’... if these myths are not confronted and the truths that counter them are not presented to our children as a part of any course of study on ‘diversity’” (p. 78).
On mentioning former activity in the Civil Rights era:
“‘To the poor black children that I teach…, it doesn’t matter much what bridge you stood on thirty years ago. They want to know what bridge you stand on now” (p. 83).
On asinine public policy:
“...there’s something deeply hypocritical in a society that holds a child only eight or nine years old accountable for her performance on a high-stakes standardized exam but does not hold the Congress and the president accountable for robbing her of what they gave their own kids six or seven years before” (p. 116).
One of the most potent passages about the inequities is this lengthy one where he describes “The Hortatory Lie” or “The Ultimate Lie” given to students: the lie of equal opportunity:
“...’The Hortatory Lie’, which gives the children in some of the worst, most poorly funded, and most hypersegregated public schools the relentless message that success or failure in their academic work is a matter wholly of their own self-will, their own determination, their own perseverance, and that the external world – the governor, the school board, the determination of the white society to keep them at a distance where they can’t contaminate the education of the middle class – has no role at all in preventing them from learning…
“In Seattle, for example, in a segregated school that bore the name of Thurgood Marshall, the principal had taken pains to make it very difficult for kids to learn who Thurgood Marshall was or what it is that makes him an important moral figure in our history. The principal’s reasoning, as I surmised, was that an honest recognition of the work of Justice Marshall in attempting to abolish racials segregation would have caused an undercurrent of persistent irony within a school that represented almost everything that Marshall had regarded as abhorrent…
“Instead of presenting Marshall as the lifelong warrior for justice that he was, therefore, the principal had altered his persona to that of some sort of middle-level corporate employee who exemplified the virtues of obedience to rules and regulations, good managerial abilities, self-discipline, and oldfashioned bootstrap values of self-help…
“If it’s up to ‘them,’ the message seems to be, it isn’t up to ‘us,’ which appears to sweep the deck of many possibly expensive obligations we many otherwise believe our nation needs to contemplate” (p. 161-162).
Validating Francesca and other teachers:
“I sometimes think that every education writer, every would-be education expert, and every politician who pontificates, as many do so condescendingly, about the ‘failings’ of the teachers in the front lines of our nation’s public schools ought to be obliged to come into a classroom once a year and teach the class, not just for an hour with the TV cameras watching but for an entire day, and find out what it’s like. It might at least impart some moderation of the disrespectful tone with which so many politicians speak of teachers” (p. 3).
His thoughts on standardized testing:
“I’m often disappointed, when I visit some of the allegedly sophisticated schools of education, to recognize how very little of the magic and the incandescent chemistry that forms between a truly gifted teacher and her children is conveyed to those who are about to come into our classrooms. Many of these schools of education have been taken over, to a troubling degree, by people who have little knowledge of the classroom but are technicians of a dry and mechanistic, often business-driven version of ‘proficiency and productivity.’ State accountability requirements, correlated closely with the needs and wishes of the corporate community, increasingly control the ethos and the aims of education that are offered to the students at some of these schools” (p. 4).
On parents who are difficult to deal with:
“Obviously, there will always be some parents who, for complicated reasons of their own, may not be responsive even to the best attempts a teacher makes in this regard. Still, I think it’s all too easy for young teachers, even quite unconsciously, to write off the parents who are not cooperative at first, instead of trying to discover why it is that some of them will not respond to messages that we send home or seem reluctant to show up for meetings that we schedule. One of the most common statements that I hear from first-year teachers is that parents of the children with the greatest problems are the ones who never seem to make it to class meetings, or to schoolwide meetings, or to individual appointments to which we invite them to discuss the challenges their children face. ‘She never shows up’ or ‘shows up late’ or ‘seems uncomfortable and edgy.’ Principals sometimes also note that these are the same parents who do not support the PTA or volunteer to help out with a school trip or… other school activities…
I always wish I could encourage teachers in these situations to reflect a little on the reasons why some of these parents are resistant to participating in a school’s activities and why, when they try to do so, many seem uneasy, even vaguely hostile, and reluctant to speak candidly to teachers. When I was a teacher… it soon became apparent that a number of such parents, who had been given a rockbottom education in some of the same schools 15 or 20 years before, looked upon these schools as places of remembered misery and failure and prolonged years of humiliation. So, even at the age of 28 or 35, they were still uncomfortable in coming to a school and were also insecure about their capacity for speaking cogently to teachers about literacy skills, for instance, which in many cases they themselves did not possess” (p. 22-23).
The brazenly racist remarks that he heard from school leaders and principals:
“...she made unkind remarks about the ‘culturally deficient values of the Negro parents’ who, she said, unlike the previous generation of white parents at the school, were ‘not committed to their children’s education” (p. 26).
On the continuing issue of segregation:
“I think you were being very honest when you said you feel as if you’re lying to your children if you leave these false impressions uncorrected and allow the class, essentially, to swallow the idea that segregation is a shameful piece of distant history for which our nation has absolved itself, rather than an ever-present aspect of the lives they lead and education they receive today. ‘Here we are in a public school with not a single white child in our class and only three white children in the school’s population. Hooray for Ruby Bridges and for Linda Brown and all the other brave black children of the South for having left us with a legacy of social justice in our public schools, even if this legacy has been completely, intentionally, ripped apart and shredded and abandoned in the years since all the kids we teach today were born!’” (p. 76).
“If I took a photo of the children that I meet in almost any of these schools, it would be indistinguishable from photos taken of the children in the all-black schools in Mississippi back in 1925 of 1930 – precisely the same photos that are reproduced in textbooks not in order to convince our children of the moral progress that our nation has made since. Teachers ‘are participating in deception of their students,’... if these myths are not confronted and the truths that counter them are not presented to our children as a part of any course of study on ‘diversity’” (p. 78).
On mentioning former activity in the Civil Rights era:
“‘To the poor black children that I teach…, it doesn’t matter much what bridge you stood on thirty years ago. They want to know what bridge you stand on now” (p. 83).
On asinine public policy:
“...there’s something deeply hypocritical in a society that holds a child only eight or nine years old accountable for her performance on a high-stakes standardized exam but does not hold the Congress and the president accountable for robbing her of what they gave their own kids six or seven years before” (p. 116).
January 4, 2014
It's hard to describe my admiration for Jonathan Kozol and his passion for real education, and, more importantly his appreciation for children and their promise.
I started reading Kozol's works in college, and I find myself going back again and again. While much of this was somewhat of a retread from previous books, it was well-organized, and a makeshift guide for teachers new to the profession - a guide on how to try to provide an authentic education for children in today's world. Kozol's voice is clear and reasoned, and it is hard to not want to put a Superman cape on him.
What I appreciated most was the end - his list of resources of organizations that are working to help create real change and progress.
It will be a sad day when Kozol stops documenting life in urban American schools. Until then, I will keep reading.
I started reading Kozol's works in college, and I find myself going back again and again. While much of this was somewhat of a retread from previous books, it was well-organized, and a makeshift guide for teachers new to the profession - a guide on how to try to provide an authentic education for children in today's world. Kozol's voice is clear and reasoned, and it is hard to not want to put a Superman cape on him.
What I appreciated most was the end - his list of resources of organizations that are working to help create real change and progress.
It will be a sad day when Kozol stops documenting life in urban American schools. Until then, I will keep reading.
July 17, 2011
I really enjoyed this book. I have had an interest in the education system and its downfalls for quite sometime, so I feel this book offered good insights and resources.
I would recommend this book to any teacher, anyone interested in education and public schools, and ALL politicians and lawmakers.
This is the first book by Kozol I have read, but it seems to me that it offers a basic background of many of his other books. From that, I would suggest reading this book first, and then you can read the books that coincide with the parts of the book you want to know more details about. I look forward to reading more books by Kozol.
I would recommend this book to any teacher, anyone interested in education and public schools, and ALL politicians and lawmakers.
This is the first book by Kozol I have read, but it seems to me that it offers a basic background of many of his other books. From that, I would suggest reading this book first, and then you can read the books that coincide with the parts of the book you want to know more details about. I look forward to reading more books by Kozol.
October 28, 2009
I agree that Kozel's tone is self-congratulatory throughout. He also simply laments upon situations and does not propose any concrete solutions. His prose is laced with contempt for any person who may deign to disagree with him. On the surface he argues against indoctrination for students, yet used phrases akin to molding them into "agents of change." I agree, but present all viewpoints and allow them to choose that change. Choice does not seem like it has a place in this version of education. I would be terrified to have him 'educate' my students. His politics are far too heavy handed.
August 8, 2020
Lovely book for those who feel frustrated of being a teacher. I loved this book because of the simple way of sending very crucial messages to young teachers.
Can really be a teacher without having difficulties in adapting your lifestyle and your personality to be more humanistic and vital during the whole day... the writer had great explanations and answers to some of the twisted wonders...? The book draws the readers' attentions to the build personal educational philosophy and set future goals through some anecdotes.
Can really be a teacher without having difficulties in adapting your lifestyle and your personality to be more humanistic and vital during the whole day... the writer had great explanations and answers to some of the twisted wonders...? The book draws the readers' attentions to the build personal educational philosophy and set future goals through some anecdotes.
October 20, 2018
"There's something deeply hypocritical in a society that holds a child only eight or nine years old accountable for her performance on a high-stakes standardized exam but does not hold the Congress and the president accountable for robbing her of what they gave their own kids six or seven years before."
June 10, 2018
I enjoyed Kozol’s book. It made more of an impact on me now that I will be teaching to a student population with living conditions similar to those he writes about. This book is necessary for all teachers, not just young ones.
August 1, 2023
I've forgotten how much I dislike nonfiction books that are just soapboxes in print. Most of this book was a monologic diatribe against policymakers wrapped in a quirky letter format. He brings up no points that are not already known to people who have student-taught, people who have taken college-level education courses led by people of color, etc. So maybe you will enjoy this if you have never taken an education class before and also come from an affluent suburban background.
I agree with a lot of Kozol's opinions; I know the situations he described to be all too common just from listening to the early-career stories of teachers in my own (privileged) high school (hi, Ms. Holst!) and from anecdotes passed down from Teach For America alumni (my opinion of TFA is irrelevant). This book provided a much-appreciated opportunity to re-affirm and re-frame my beliefs about education and teaching. To be fair, I rarely see such an incisive look the day-to-day realities of modern American teaching. (As others have mentioned, this was at the very least better than Teacher Man. Maybe we just...need better teacher memoirs.) Some of these chapters would serve very well as standalone articles or class readings, especially the later ones, which included stories that made me cry, or a few of the ones about the importance of teachers as witnesses, or the intrinsic joy and value and love that children bring to us.
But most chapters were in fact better off as letters between two people who liked to take turns preaching to the choir. In dozens of pages complaining about the (very real) failures of standardized testing and No Child Left Behind, Kozol offered no inkling that teachers could hope to collaborate with policymakers rather than unilaterally hate them, or that bureaucrats were anything less than evil. (Full disclosure, I work with bureaucrats and am in fact one. But I have also been a teacher, albeit not one subject to the whims of state and federal requirements.)
In the end, even Francesca had to turn to one of the curriculum specialists that Kozol so hates in order to repair her own students' flagging grades. So don't just rail against summative testing and high-and-mighty literacy specialists, Kozol, champion formative testing and long-term relationships between consultants and teachers! Champion democratic decision-making and higher staffing budgets! And—will de-segregation in schools get rid of segregated postal codes? (You have to start somewhere; I wonder if bussing is feasible, or whether we should instead start at equal funding for schools. When you say "integration", Kozol, do you mean bussing white kids to inner-city schools or just bussing minorities to suburban schools?)
I have to say that it was very difficult for me to get through the first few chapters because, in recounting his experience as an early teacher, Kozol ended up saying some extremely white-centered comments about being surprised that Black parents had books in their home (!). (With that being said, Kozol does the actual work of integration and community-building, which is a lot more than perfectionist liberals and armchair critics like myself can say. And I agree that sometimes the way race relations is taught can bring—what did he call it?—an unnecessary anxiety to young people worrying about bridging the gap between racial groups or making up for racism by being weirdly gratuitous.) Anyways, Kozol often struck me as deficit-based and generally more classically liberal than radical, whatever that means to you, whether he was making snarky comments about local cultural nonprofits or generalizing about how incompetent and unaware students are about their own situations or assuming that new teachers are white. Still, I recognize that he called out people like me specifically for trying to romanticize and justify what are objectively inhumane conditions.
I think I'd enjoy one of his better-edited, more organized books better than this one. The friend who recommended this book to me promised that Francesca's responses were published here as well, which to my disappointment did not exist.
I agree with a lot of Kozol's opinions; I know the situations he described to be all too common just from listening to the early-career stories of teachers in my own (privileged) high school (hi, Ms. Holst!) and from anecdotes passed down from Teach For America alumni (my opinion of TFA is irrelevant). This book provided a much-appreciated opportunity to re-affirm and re-frame my beliefs about education and teaching. To be fair, I rarely see such an incisive look the day-to-day realities of modern American teaching. (As others have mentioned, this was at the very least better than Teacher Man. Maybe we just...need better teacher memoirs.) Some of these chapters would serve very well as standalone articles or class readings, especially the later ones, which included stories that made me cry, or a few of the ones about the importance of teachers as witnesses, or the intrinsic joy and value and love that children bring to us.
But most chapters were in fact better off as letters between two people who liked to take turns preaching to the choir. In dozens of pages complaining about the (very real) failures of standardized testing and No Child Left Behind, Kozol offered no inkling that teachers could hope to collaborate with policymakers rather than unilaterally hate them, or that bureaucrats were anything less than evil. (Full disclosure, I work with bureaucrats and am in fact one. But I have also been a teacher, albeit not one subject to the whims of state and federal requirements.)
In the end, even Francesca had to turn to one of the curriculum specialists that Kozol so hates in order to repair her own students' flagging grades. So don't just rail against summative testing and high-and-mighty literacy specialists, Kozol, champion formative testing and long-term relationships between consultants and teachers! Champion democratic decision-making and higher staffing budgets! And—will de-segregation in schools get rid of segregated postal codes? (You have to start somewhere; I wonder if bussing is feasible, or whether we should instead start at equal funding for schools. When you say "integration", Kozol, do you mean bussing white kids to inner-city schools or just bussing minorities to suburban schools?)
I have to say that it was very difficult for me to get through the first few chapters because, in recounting his experience as an early teacher, Kozol ended up saying some extremely white-centered comments about being surprised that Black parents had books in their home (!). (With that being said, Kozol does the actual work of integration and community-building, which is a lot more than perfectionist liberals and armchair critics like myself can say. And I agree that sometimes the way race relations is taught can bring—what did he call it?—an unnecessary anxiety to young people worrying about bridging the gap between racial groups or making up for racism by being weirdly gratuitous.) Anyways, Kozol often struck me as deficit-based and generally more classically liberal than radical, whatever that means to you, whether he was making snarky comments about local cultural nonprofits or generalizing about how incompetent and unaware students are about their own situations or assuming that new teachers are white. Still, I recognize that he called out people like me specifically for trying to romanticize and justify what are objectively inhumane conditions.
I think I'd enjoy one of his better-edited, more organized books better than this one. The friend who recommended this book to me promised that Francesca's responses were published here as well, which to my disappointment did not exist.
March 4, 2018
Well where do I start? I have recently been doing substitute teaching at the public school in my area. I do well with high school but was feeling less than for elementary school. I saw this book at the library and checked it out. By the time I started reading it I had thought that at any age children are better perceived by administration when they follow the rules outside of class. I was glad the author hit that same ideal right away. With high school students I can say, "Here is your assignment, do it, don't do it, it's up to you. Do me a favor and just pretend to follow the rules and keep the chatter down so another teacher doesn't come into the room to yell at us". I will then announce that if anyone wanted to work as a group on the assignment they were welcome to move to the front. I would get a nice crowd going and the other kids were 'pretending' to work and everyone was satisfied. The kids and I got along just fine.
In elementary school it was a nightmare but I finally said the same thing to them about the rules being followed, at least outside the classroom, and we have come to a cease fire. I am managing to get a math club going and a reading club going so that the kids accomplish at least some of the work they are assigned.
The rest of the book I felt showed the author and his lack of growing up in a diverse area and that perhaps he never saw his parents struggle. I grew up in a blue collar home where there were times that we barely made the bills. The area I grew up in, and still live, is a mid size city of about 200k and is very diverse. I have always felt that people are people the world over and thought the author spent too much time in describing race as a reason for issues.
I noticed I had not wrote my review in the way I have been trying to teach students to write reviews. I encourage them to research the author and see if the research would give them an insight into the work. I just read an article of the author of this book and found many of my negatives can be applicable to the many sources of the author the following article, provided, certainly impacts my view. He most certainly has no idea, or experience, of the plight of those less than the privileged upbringing he had.
https://www.city-journal.org/html/ame...
In elementary school it was a nightmare but I finally said the same thing to them about the rules being followed, at least outside the classroom, and we have come to a cease fire. I am managing to get a math club going and a reading club going so that the kids accomplish at least some of the work they are assigned.
The rest of the book I felt showed the author and his lack of growing up in a diverse area and that perhaps he never saw his parents struggle. I grew up in a blue collar home where there were times that we barely made the bills. The area I grew up in, and still live, is a mid size city of about 200k and is very diverse. I have always felt that people are people the world over and thought the author spent too much time in describing race as a reason for issues.
I noticed I had not wrote my review in the way I have been trying to teach students to write reviews. I encourage them to research the author and see if the research would give them an insight into the work. I just read an article of the author of this book and found many of my negatives can be applicable to the many sources of the author the following article, provided, certainly impacts my view. He most certainly has no idea, or experience, of the plight of those less than the privileged upbringing he had.
https://www.city-journal.org/html/ame...
Read
June 19, 2020This book is a compilation of a series of letters than Kozol wrote to a first year teacher in an inner-city Boston elementary school. Each letter addresses a different issue facing new teachers in urban settings or about a current struggle or policy issue in public education at large. Some of the topics and reflections made by Kozol which stand out most to me were:
Being a part of a community—including elder teachers, students, and parents—which you don't belong to. The book was largely aimed at privileged young teachers going into an underprivileged school and working through all of the issues of class and power that come along with that new location. I think his point on this issue was to focus on the good works while remaining cognizant of these issues of power. Not getting bogged down in the guilt and struggle, but also not letting these conversations and thoughts turn into paralysis.
Another issue was the privatization of the public school system. This included letters addressing school vouchers, corporate sponsorship of schools, and the creating a small “elite” academies and charter schools which may (if done poorly) exacerbate an already highly segregated education system. He often referred back to Brown v. Board and a history which he sees us returning to, citing the uses of terms such as “diversity” or other buzz words to talk about schools which are anything but diverse.
This book directly relates directly to many of the struggles and issues which arise working with “under-served” youth, and particularly the struggles with issues of power which are always in my mind while working with youth (ranging from race and gender issues, but also age issues, being possibly a very influential force in a young persons life). I think that the anger and compassion which with Kozol addressed these issues was really great, and I think that because of this his writing has the potential to be very powerful.
Recommended?
Definitely. I think that even if you disagree with some of the politics raised by Kozol, his dedication to and articulation of the issues is really great.
Being a part of a community—including elder teachers, students, and parents—which you don't belong to. The book was largely aimed at privileged young teachers going into an underprivileged school and working through all of the issues of class and power that come along with that new location. I think his point on this issue was to focus on the good works while remaining cognizant of these issues of power. Not getting bogged down in the guilt and struggle, but also not letting these conversations and thoughts turn into paralysis.
Another issue was the privatization of the public school system. This included letters addressing school vouchers, corporate sponsorship of schools, and the creating a small “elite” academies and charter schools which may (if done poorly) exacerbate an already highly segregated education system. He often referred back to Brown v. Board and a history which he sees us returning to, citing the uses of terms such as “diversity” or other buzz words to talk about schools which are anything but diverse.
This book directly relates directly to many of the struggles and issues which arise working with “under-served” youth, and particularly the struggles with issues of power which are always in my mind while working with youth (ranging from race and gender issues, but also age issues, being possibly a very influential force in a young persons life). I think that the anger and compassion which with Kozol addressed these issues was really great, and I think that because of this his writing has the potential to be very powerful.
Recommended?
Definitely. I think that even if you disagree with some of the politics raised by Kozol, his dedication to and articulation of the issues is really great.
March 4, 2019
When I first started this book, which was a gift from another teacher, I was a bit surprised when halfway-in it turned to a political nature. I suppose my first reaction was, "Hmph." I have to admit, I was probably a bit biased against him in the first place - not because of his views, but because he so strongly expressed them. I don't like feeling manipulated into believing another person's views, especially when I suspect they have an "agenda."
That said, I did like most of his book, and I very reluctantly started agreeing to many of his notions (against school vouchers, etc.). What I will say is that I wish he was more positive and solution-oriented. He definitely knew what was -wrong- with the education system, but rarely did he have a solution for it. Additionally, he warned AGAINST all the solutions that people were bringing up. I'm not saying he is wrong, I am just saying it's hard to buy-in to his ideas when he is predominantly negative.
I will also add that there is nothing wrong with education as a science. I did not like how he (and Francesca) judged the woman from "the district" for using "meta" terms, and describing what was going on in the classroom in "big words." To me, this is an excuse to butter up teachers who may not feel comfortable with the intellectual side of education, and that's OK, but it's never OK to bash others just because they do embrace this science. It's okay to be social smart, and it's okay to be book smart. Socially smart people (like the teachers Kozol described) might benefit from being receptive to people who bring in those lofty terms and concepts about education, rather than simply judging them as condescending and writing them off. Believe it or not, most of the time people aren't trying to be condescending, and I suspect that was so with the woman from the district. She probably was just trying to do her job! And besides, if we stay open (and not judgemental), we might learn something useful.
That said, I did like most of his book, and I very reluctantly started agreeing to many of his notions (against school vouchers, etc.). What I will say is that I wish he was more positive and solution-oriented. He definitely knew what was -wrong- with the education system, but rarely did he have a solution for it. Additionally, he warned AGAINST all the solutions that people were bringing up. I'm not saying he is wrong, I am just saying it's hard to buy-in to his ideas when he is predominantly negative.
I will also add that there is nothing wrong with education as a science. I did not like how he (and Francesca) judged the woman from "the district" for using "meta" terms, and describing what was going on in the classroom in "big words." To me, this is an excuse to butter up teachers who may not feel comfortable with the intellectual side of education, and that's OK, but it's never OK to bash others just because they do embrace this science. It's okay to be social smart, and it's okay to be book smart. Socially smart people (like the teachers Kozol described) might benefit from being receptive to people who bring in those lofty terms and concepts about education, rather than simply judging them as condescending and writing them off. Believe it or not, most of the time people aren't trying to be condescending, and I suspect that was so with the woman from the district. She probably was just trying to do her job! And besides, if we stay open (and not judgemental), we might learn something useful.
August 16, 2020
Quote: "When it comes to courage, my best teachers have been children."
"When they begin to teach, they come into their classrooms with a sense of affirmation of the goodness and the fullness of existence, with a sense of satisfaction in discovering the unexpected in their students, and with a longing to surprise the world, their kids, even themselves, with their capacity to leave each place they've been (a school, a classroom, a community of learning) a better and more joyful place than it was when they entered it."
"And, when it is needed, I also wish you rightful anger, vigorous denunciation, and the saving grace of sly irreverence and the skillful uses of ironical detachment from the soul-destroying practices and terminologies of experts who are positive the know 'what works' within the unjust and unequal system they no longer choose to challenge or denounce but who seem to know only too little of the hears of children. Resist the deadwood of predictability. Embrace the unexpected. Revel in the run-on sentences. Celebrate silliness. Dig deep into the world of whim."
Loved: Oh! Where to begin! This book is a MUST READ for every teacher. Ever single one, not just the "young" teachers. It is insightful and beautiful, and eye-opening. And SO SO encouraging! I loved how much he loves children, advocates for teachers, and for public school. THANK YOU, MR. KOZOL!!
disLiked: ... that I didn't read this sooner!! I have a feeling this will be a yearly read for me.
Learned: Voucher system // Rilke the poet // Strategies for classroom management // Rethinking Schools
Lingering questions: What would he want to add, retrack, or change, since the publishing of this book in 2007?
5 Stars= 100% recommend
3 Stars= 50% recommend
1 Star= Do not recommend
"When they begin to teach, they come into their classrooms with a sense of affirmation of the goodness and the fullness of existence, with a sense of satisfaction in discovering the unexpected in their students, and with a longing to surprise the world, their kids, even themselves, with their capacity to leave each place they've been (a school, a classroom, a community of learning) a better and more joyful place than it was when they entered it."
"And, when it is needed, I also wish you rightful anger, vigorous denunciation, and the saving grace of sly irreverence and the skillful uses of ironical detachment from the soul-destroying practices and terminologies of experts who are positive the know 'what works' within the unjust and unequal system they no longer choose to challenge or denounce but who seem to know only too little of the hears of children. Resist the deadwood of predictability. Embrace the unexpected. Revel in the run-on sentences. Celebrate silliness. Dig deep into the world of whim."
Loved: Oh! Where to begin! This book is a MUST READ for every teacher. Ever single one, not just the "young" teachers. It is insightful and beautiful, and eye-opening. And SO SO encouraging! I loved how much he loves children, advocates for teachers, and for public school. THANK YOU, MR. KOZOL!!
disLiked: ... that I didn't read this sooner!! I have a feeling this will be a yearly read for me.
Learned: Voucher system // Rilke the poet // Strategies for classroom management // Rethinking Schools
Lingering questions: What would he want to add, retrack, or change, since the publishing of this book in 2007?
5 Stars= 100% recommend
3 Stars= 50% recommend
1 Star= Do not recommend
August 9, 2022
Wow. I picked this up years ago and decided to finally read it even though I am not a grade school teacher. I was expecting a dry collection of essays with predictable but good points on how to improve one's teaching, but this book was so much more. Jonathan Kozol himself is an amazing figure. He became a teacher for the Boston Public School System in the 1960s and was fired for reading a Langston Hughes poem to his class of predominately black students. He then devoted the rest of his career fighting for children in inner-city schools. He's published many non-fiction books on the school system and even won the National Book Award in Science, Philosophy, and Religion for "Death at an Early Age".
Although at this point the book is 15 years old, Kozol gives an incredible survey of the administrative and political problems present in American public schools that are (unfortunately) still relevant today. Some of these issues I had heard frequently about and some I never even thought of. I wish I would have had a highlighter while reading this because there were some great pieces of advice here. The most powerful chapter was The Uses of "Diversity" which discusses how schools are still highly segregated today by race and class. He also discusses this in his chapter about vouchers, which he believes is the worst idea that still contributes to segregation. He also discusses the harm of the emphasis on examinations and "admin" jargon and how these jargon filled requirements never include ensuring students are happy or schools are well-kept.
This was a fantastic, easy-to-read nonfiction and was incredibly eye-opening.
Although at this point the book is 15 years old, Kozol gives an incredible survey of the administrative and political problems present in American public schools that are (unfortunately) still relevant today. Some of these issues I had heard frequently about and some I never even thought of. I wish I would have had a highlighter while reading this because there were some great pieces of advice here. The most powerful chapter was The Uses of "Diversity" which discusses how schools are still highly segregated today by race and class. He also discusses this in his chapter about vouchers, which he believes is the worst idea that still contributes to segregation. He also discusses the harm of the emphasis on examinations and "admin" jargon and how these jargon filled requirements never include ensuring students are happy or schools are well-kept.
This was a fantastic, easy-to-read nonfiction and was incredibly eye-opening.
March 12, 2019
As a first year teacher, this book was a source of medicinal relief, guidance, and empathy.
In "Letters to a Young Teacher" Jonathon Kozol shares the letters he wrote to a young, first-year teacher named Francessca. He gives her advice, offers praise, and explains the different challenges that educators across the country have faced in our inner-city schools.
Many of the problems Kozol mentions are eerily similar or exactly the same as the problems that many inner-city schools face today: high-stakes testing, corporatized cultures invading schools, segregated student populations, teacher incompetence, unprepared teachers, politicians who turn a blind eye, and the list could go on.
His most powerful passages deal with his time spent with young students and the different challenges, setbacks, and successes they face. Every teacher I know has atleast one student that reminds them of "why" they do what they do. Mr. Kozol has several.
It was relaxing and enjoyable to read this book. A must read for any novice teachers or educators who wish to see the culminating thoughts of a writer who has spent a lifetime advocating, writing, and educating our kids.
In "Letters to a Young Teacher" Jonathon Kozol shares the letters he wrote to a young, first-year teacher named Francessca. He gives her advice, offers praise, and explains the different challenges that educators across the country have faced in our inner-city schools.
Many of the problems Kozol mentions are eerily similar or exactly the same as the problems that many inner-city schools face today: high-stakes testing, corporatized cultures invading schools, segregated student populations, teacher incompetence, unprepared teachers, politicians who turn a blind eye, and the list could go on.
His most powerful passages deal with his time spent with young students and the different challenges, setbacks, and successes they face. Every teacher I know has atleast one student that reminds them of "why" they do what they do. Mr. Kozol has several.
It was relaxing and enjoyable to read this book. A must read for any novice teachers or educators who wish to see the culminating thoughts of a writer who has spent a lifetime advocating, writing, and educating our kids.
July 31, 2021
I picked this book up on a whim from a used bookstore. It had to have been one of the best decisions I made. As an education major, I am eager to enter the classroom as a teacher. However, I have so many fears and doubts about my ability to be the teacher I want to be. This book didn't eliminate these fears, but it helped put them in perspective. I am now feeling my passion for teaching, especially for social-justice-oriented teaching, totally and utterly refueled. All because of this book.
There were many quotes that I highlighted and want to hold onto. But I think this is one of my favorites because I want to do this in my classroom. I want my students to recognize that they are capable of making changes in their communities and wider society. "I think we have an obligation to empower those we teach to understand that this democracy is very much a work in progress and that if they can't achieve the skills to take an active role as citizens in struggles to bring progress in their grown-up years, the injustices they suffer now will never change." (155)
There were many quotes that I highlighted and want to hold onto. But I think this is one of my favorites because I want to do this in my classroom. I want my students to recognize that they are capable of making changes in their communities and wider society. "I think we have an obligation to empower those we teach to understand that this democracy is very much a work in progress and that if they can't achieve the skills to take an active role as citizens in struggles to bring progress in their grown-up years, the injustices they suffer now will never change." (155)
July 16, 2017
There are some decent reminders in this book about showing empathy to where families come from and the impact on the system on students of poverty. He also continues his critique of the US system that pushes school choice and standardized testing. I did find the book having quite a negative tone (and perhaps this was his point) and this book is not one that I would share with a new teacher unless they were perhaps working in an inner city school in the US. I have heard Savage Inequalities is a good book by Kozol so if you are looking for a strong critique of the US system, maybe try this one.
July 27, 2024
I read this book to mentally prepare myself for my first year as a teacher (still unreal) before diving into a bunch of pedagogical books. This was my first book that I’ve read by Kozol and I’m a bit mixed on my reaction to it. Some of the chapters felt extremely impactful and relevant, while others felt patronizing or abstract. I laughed a lot when he suggested impromptu visits to your students families at home… which I’m pretty sure is illegal (or at least extremely creepy). As it was written in a letter format, I think it would’ve been extremely helpful to read Francesca’s letters to him to understand what prompted his tone and response.
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