Hypersegregated inner-city schools - in which one finds no more than five or ten white children, at the very most, within a student population of as many as 3,000 - are the norm, not the exception, in most northern urban areas today.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the severe racial segregation in urban schools, emphasizing that it is a widespread issue rather than an anomaly.
Jonathan Kozol's statement draws attention to the alarming reality of hypersegregated schools in northern urban areas, where the racial makeup of student populations drastically lacks diversity. By noting the extremely low presence of white children in predominantly minority schools, he underscores the systemic inequalities in education and raises questions about the societal structures that perpetuate such segregation.
In practice
This quote can be used in a presentation discussing the challenges of urban education.
A great deal has been written in recent years about the purported lack of motivation in the children of the Negro ghettos. Little in my experience supports this, yet the phrase has been repeated endlessly, and the blame in almost all cases is placed somewhere outside the classroom.
Schooling should not be left to the whim or wealth of village elders. I believe that we should fund all schools in the U.S. with our national resources. All these kids are being educated to be Americans, not citizens of Minneapolis or San Francisco.
An awful lot of people come to college with this strange idea that there's no longer segregation in America's schools, that our schools are basically equal; neither of these things is true.
I wrote the first book, and I thought people would say: 'Separate and unequal schools in the City of Boston? I didn't know that. Let's go out and fix it.'
The trouble is not that schools don't work; they do. They're excellent machines for achieving historically accepted purposes. In suburban schools are children of the rich, who grow up to privilege and anesthetic oblivion to pain - and who then use the servants produced by ghetto schools.
Children are not simply commodities to be herded into line and trained for the jobs that white people who live in segregated neighborhoods have available.
The faster you go, the more students you leave behind. It doesn't matter how much or how fast you teach. The true measure is how much students have learned.
Only whites were allowed by law and practice to attend the University of Mississippi - a public institution supported by public dollars. Anything public and supported by public dollars is for me.
As a child, you respond physically, tactically. You're delighted by sound, you're delighted by recognizing something. It's like hide and seek. Is it there? Is it not there? Is it this note? Is it not this note? It's one fantastic game.
All that being a college coach has done, is it's reaffirmed the need to take care of our young people. They're the ones that are going to make a difference. We spend a lot of time blaming them for stuff, and not enough time mentoring them and helping them stand on their own two feet.
Since the beginning of time, children have not liked to study. They would much rather play, and if you have their interests at heart, you will let them learn while they play.
Increase your word power. Words are the raw material of our craft. The greater your vocabulary the more effective your writing. We who write in English are fortunate to have the richest and most versatile language in the world. Respect it.
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