Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools

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Summary: the myth of "equality of opportunity"
Review: gSavage Inequalities : Children in America's Schoolsh is one of the most disturbing, inspiring and socially relevant books I have ever read. Author Jonathan Kozol maintains that while in Americafs schools educational innovation is (arguably) flourishing, basic funding for all the nationfs schools is the problem that most urgently needs to be addressed. Kozol documents in case after case that the funding gap between schools in affluent (mostly white) areas and ones in poor, mostly African-American or Hispanic areas is beyond startling, it is horrifying. Kozol states that the principal culprit for this horrendous situation is that schools are funded mainly from local tax dollars. Prosperous districts pay higher local taxes and receive better education facilities in return. Inner-city schools, in contrast, have been left with a dwindling tax base and little to spend on education. Kozol maintains that this disparity has created excellent gprivateh schools for the privileged within the national public school system. Highly recommended reading for anyone who believes that gequality of opportunityh is anything more than a euphemism for gclass warfareh.

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Summary: A plea for fairness and decency in America's schools
Review: Reviewer: My name is Doris Rutherford. I am a student at Macon State College, majoring in Secondary Education. I would strongly urge all educators and education mojors to read this book: "Savage Inequalities" Children in America's Schools, by Jonathan Kozol. Jonathan Kozol takes us into schools accross the country, describing what is happening to children from poor families in the inner cities and less affluent suburbs. By bringing these children vividly to life,Kozol forces us to confront the most important facts. A plea for decency and fairness of all children in this country. He stresses that maybe some of the children would be saved from destruction and despair.

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Summary: Some education issues that are kept a secret
Review: I am a sophomore at Macon State College. I am working towards a degree in Education. I read this book for my Education class and found it very interesting. It talked about the segregation still in schools and how no one even thinks twice about it. The unequal treatment of poor black children in big cities is almost unimaginable. The children had practically nothing except delapodating buildings as schools. They did not have heating and air and sometimes did not even have a teacher. I have lived in Macon, Georgia all my life and would never believe this would still be able to go on, especially on the same street that Martin Luther King,Jr. grew up on. I feel everyone should read this book. It definitely made me appreciate the schools I was able to go to. It also influenced me to try and teach to my best ability even with the conditions I maybe handed.

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Summary: Tell Me It Isn't True
Review:     Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools, exposes the appalling inequalities of our educational systems by showing us life through the eyes of the children who are trapped in a cycle of poverty and despair.  Andrew Hacker of the New York Times Book Review describes this book as "An impassioned book, laced with anger and indignation, about how our public education system scorns so many of our children." I agree with his appraisal and think that every parent, educator and politician should read this book. Once you have read it, you cannot help but be touched by the plight of these children and wonder why these conditions are allowed to continue.  

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Summary: Savage Inequalities
Review: Being a future teacher it was interesting reading Jonathan Kozol's book Savage Inequalities. My children are in a rural Ga. school and I thought they had it bad. Hawkinsville Middle School has to use the High Schools library,gym and lunchroom. It also makes it hard to get to on rainy days the kids usually end up wet before their next class. After reading Savage Inequalities I have nothing to complain about. It is sad to know that the city in which Martin Luther King grew up in has such a very poor school system, (maybe they should but the money they used to change the street signs in every city to MLK to upgrade the school that desperately needs it in the town he grew up in). Reading this book has made me appreciate what we do have and it also makes me want to find a way to help those schools that desperately need it,(I thought maybe if we could get Oprah or Bill Cosby's attention on this matter, maybe if I sent them a copy of the book, somehow, someway this problem needs to be addressed).

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Summary: Conservative Republican and thankful for Kozol's book
Review: Kozol's book is an eye-opener no matter what your personal philosophy of education is. He exposes atrocities that most of us will never see or experience... and wouldn't want to. Personally, he allowed me to see into the minds of those who have to deal with discrimination as a daily burden and caused me to cringe in shame that America could allow such apathy. I thought I knew what discrimination in education was all about. Kozol, led me to question everything that I had already "closed the book" on. Although I disagree with a lot of his personal conclusions, the facts he uncovered are real and should be addressed by all Americans. I will go on to say that I feel the need to re-read the book each summer, to gear up for the next year teaching at my high school where the majority is the minority.

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Summary: Incredibly misleading
Review: The basic theory of this book is that America's poor urban schools are scandalously underfunded. And if the only thing I knew about this subject was the heart rending examples he digs up, I would believe it.

But Kozol's examples are only a small slice of American reality. For every urban school system outspent by its suburban peers, there is another that does not. The most extreme example is the Kansas City, Missouri system which due to a school desegregation order spends twice as much per pupil as any other Missouri school, with results that have not significantly improved since the spending spree began. And nationally, the average urban school spends about as much per pupil as other schools. Because Kozol mostly ignores these facts, his selective description of the most underfunded schools is misleading.

A good book could be written about American urban schools, but this ain't it.

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Summary: Savage Inequalities by J. Kozol
Review: Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol is a book you will hate to read but will not be able to put down. Mr. Kozol brings to light the many discrepancies in the funding of our Public School Systems. These discrepancies seem to be over looked not only because of the schools' geographical location but also because of the population they serve. Through six chapters the reader is taken through the United States and shown areas you never knew existed or could have ever believed existed in one of the richest nations in the world. You could understand these conditions happening in 3rd world countries but never in a powerful industrialized nation such as the United States of America.

Jonathan Kozol will introduce you to children who are able see the difference between their schools and those of their middle and upper class neighbors. And yet, these children are not able to understand why. As a reader, you can only share in each child's confusion about why this is allowed to happen to children who have done nothing in their lives to deserve such treatment. The neglect, the filth, and the apathy Mr. Kozol introduces us to inside our children's elementary schools is staggering. However, the mere fact that the school districts, the states and even our country allows this to continue is beyond imagination.

As a teacher, I have heard our problems in education have many causes. One of these causes is believed to be the lack of support many of us find with our children's parents. And yet, if these parents have been educated in conditions such as these, or even somewhat similar conditions, is their any reason to believe they would choose to support education?

I believe this book should be mandatory reading for all educators, law enforcement officers, prison guards, lawyers, judges, psychologist, social workers and most of all, for every education minded politician.

As Mr. Kozol reminded me, every morning, in every state, in every classroom around America we pledge..."with liberty and justice for all". Is this a question or a statement?

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Summary: The schools in America you never hear about
Review: This book was absolutely fabulous. I could not actually believe that this was real and especially in the US. To think that there are schools in the US that have classes in urinals because there is no room is astonishing. I couldn't put the book down. Anyone who is going into education should definitely read this book. It's horrifying and yet there's nothing anyone wants to do about it. It is very well written and the accounts of real children in the book are amazing!

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Summary: Just as the title states...
Review: ...it is staggering the inequalities innercity children must endure day after day. I read this book as part of my college English course, and I was appalled. I have three children of my own, and I am reminded each day how blessed I am. This book aroused a passion in me to help out those less fortunate than my family, and rally for the cause of these people. Bleeding heart? Yes, and darn proud of it. Everyone should read this, and try to make the world a more fair place.