Jonathan Kozol
Jonathan Kozol
Jonathan Kozolis an American writer, educator, and activist. best known for his books on public education in the United States...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth5 September 1936
CountryUnited States of America
children giving glimpse
Young children give us glimpses of some things that are eternal.
dream kings teaching
The greatest difference between now and 1964, when I began teaching, is that public policy has pretty much eradicated the dream of Martin Luther King.
school white pupils
Nationally, overwhelmingly non-white schools receive $1,000 less per pupil than overwhelmingly white schools.
teacher children book
I write books to change the world. Perhaps I can only change one little piece of that world. But if I can empower teachers and good citizens to give these children, who are the poorest of the poor, the same opportunity we give our own kids, then I'll feel my life has been worth it.
dream real people
A dream does not die on its own. A dream is vanquished by the choices ordinary people make about real things in their own lives...
teacher school kids
The future teachers I try to recruit are those show have refused to let themselves be neutered in this way, either in their private lives or in the lives that they intend to lead in school. 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 better and more joyful place than it was when they entered it.
school people accountability
By far the most important factor in the success or failure of any school, far more important than tests or standards or business-model methods of accountability, is simply attracting the best-educated, most exciting young people into urban schools and keeping them there.
children blessing needs
Instead of seeing these children for the blessings that they are, we are measuring them only by the standard of whether they will be future deficits or assets for our nation's competitive needs.
summer children nice
Many of us regard ourselves as mildly liberal or centrist politically, voice fairly pleasant sentiments about our poor children, contribute money to send poor kids to summer camp, feel benevolent. We're not nazis; we're nice people. We read sophisticated books. We go to church. We go to synagogue. Meanwhile, we put other people's children into an economic and environmental death zone. We make it hard for them to get out. We strip the place bare of amenities. And we sit back and say to ourselves, "Well, I hope that they don't kill each other off. But if they do, it's not my fault.
teacher voice use
I encourage teachers to speak in their own voices. Don't use the gibberish of the standards writers.
teacher wonderful drill-sergeant
Wonderful teachers should never let themselves be drill sergeants for the state.
struggle believe victory
The ones I pity are the ones who never stick out their neck for something they believe, never know the taste of moral struggle, and never have the thrill of victory.
children school ideas
But what is now encompassed by the one word (“school”) are two very different kinds of institutions that, in function, finance and intention, serve entirely different roles. Both are needed for our nation’s governance. But children in one set of schools are educated to be governors; children in the other set of schools are trained for being governed. The former are given the imaginative range to mobilize ideas for economic growth; the latter are provided with the discipline to do the narrow tasks the first group will prescribe.
use fund
I am opposed to the use of public funds for private education.