Running head: SAVAGE INEQUALITIES AND MODERN DAY CLASSROOMS

Savage Inequalities and Modern Day Classrooms Angela N. Ouellette The University of North Texas

Savage Inequalities and Modern Day Classrooms

Abstract In the book Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol describes several different school scenarios that are sure to disappoint any believer in education. In the following, I explain the book in summary, with each location mentioned in the book. Also, my belief as to why Kozol wrote the book and the role of poverty in our school systems. I will also discuss some strategies that could possibly be used in situations presented in the book, as well as documentation for the effectiveness of each strategy. This, along with how to present it to administration as an improvement plan is outlined below.

Savage Inequalities and Modern Day Classrooms

Savage Inequalities and Modern Day Classrooms

Why Kozol wrote Savage Inequalities

Kozol wanted to write a book to expose the everyday citizen to life behind the classroom doors. Not every classroom is the same, and sometimes completely opposite. Kozol wanted the world to see the conditions some students have to endure while at a learning facility provided by the state. Kozol speaks of conditions where some students do not have books or even classrooms, or tools to learn with. Most classrooms are under-staffed and over-crowded in the schools he visited. Possibly, by exposing where kids go to school and what occurs there, he may be able to bring about change.

The Impact Poverty has in our Public Schools

Poverty, among other things impacts schools and classrooms. Because of our project comparing types of districts across Texas, I know that the lower the socioeconomic status of a school area, the more funding they actually get from the state. This makes a difference. At my school, which is title one, we receive extra funding, but the funding has to be allotted to certain things. Most of ours goes to professional development, which indirectly affects the kids. The money isnt really directly spent on them. We also know other problems at home affect the classroom. Some students have to watch younger siblings, some have jobs, and some have pressures of society (such as the student who was selling stolen good with his friends). These all impact the classroom, and are obstacles that teachers must combat and deal with daily.

Savage Inequalities and Modern Day Classrooms

Summary
Chapter 1: Life on the Mississippi: East St. Louis, Illinois Kozol begins Savage Inequalities by describing a community that most would consider unlivable. A community that reeks of trash and garbage and is surrounded by several factories that produce toxic chemicals. The Pfizer and Monsanto chemical plants surround the town, and are possibly the cause of the high asthma rates in the community. Residents frequently encounter raw backed up sewage and endure exposure to toxic waste. Railroad tracks still transport hazardous chemicals runs through the city. (Kozol, 1991) Furthermore, Kozol reports that soil samples tested at residential sites in East St. Louis turn up disturbing quantities of arsenic, mercury, and lead, as well as steroids. (Kozol 1991) Kozol takes another person with him who is more familiar with the area to investigate the city further. Sister Julia Huiskamp agreed to ride along and show him the area. On this ride, Sister Julia mentions to Kozol that she does not come out her after dark, because that are no taxis that dare come out late at night. The poverty levels in this community are partly because the chemical plants do not pay taxes, and they are exempt from the supervisions of the E.P.A. Also, common in low income areas, the city itself is full of bars and liquor stores and lots of ads for cigarettes that feature pictures of black people. (Kozol, 1991) In the center of the town, you will find a pornographic theatre. Children who live in this area do not have access everyday health care and often become really sick. The book states that there is no place to have a baby in East St. Louis. The closest obstetrics service open to the women is seven miles away (Kozol, 1991). Also, the daily food

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expenditure per child is $2.40. Did you catch that? $2.40 DAILY. The schools have terrible conditions too. Schools have to be closed down because of sewage fumes and backed-up toilets. Kozol calls what is occurring in this community racial isolation. Chapter 2: Other Peoples Children North Lawndale and the South Side of Chicago In chapter two, Kozol visited several schools in the Chicago area. This is the area where Dr. King once lived, where the schools are still visibly segregated. Again, like the first case study in chapter one, this chapter talks of a town with crime, hazardous factories, and poverty. Part of the problem with the education system in Chicago is the quantity of untrained, under qualified teachers employed. There were also great teachers in this chapter, but they used their own money to provide school materials for the students. Kozol mentions Corla Hawkins as a great and dedicated teacher in an urban school. He explains that it is not what she does, but who she is.(Kozol, 1991) She has warmth, humor and contagious energy. Ms. Hawkins is one of the few good teachers in urban schools. There are magnet schools in Chicago, that are productive and good schools, but they are difficult to get admittance to. This chapter presented several facts that reiterate the first chapter. Schools in lower socio-economical communities have less funding, and receive less funding to educate their children.

Savage Inequalities and Modern Day Classrooms

Chapter 3: The Savage Inequalities of Public Education in New York Again in this chapter, Kozol points out those schools in poorer communities receive less funding. Same story, unqualified, or barely qualified teachers are teaching the students. There is little funding for teachers, supplies and other things needed to be a ensure students receive a quality education. Kozol beings by pointing out that poorer district are receiving $5,000 per student, while the richer districts are receiving up to $15,000. Kozol visits several public

schools and all battle the same things, overcrowding and underfunding. Morris High is one of the most overcrowded schools and provides some of the highest dropout rates and lowest test scores. (This book is really depressing). Kozol also looked at schools such as Rye and Riverdale. These are schools that have good resources, decent teachers and good curriculum to teach kids. These schools receive more than double what the urban schools receive per student in state funding. Chapter 4: Children of the City Invincible: Camden, New Jersey In chapter four, we seem similar conditions as listed above. The classrooms are overcrowded, and classes are held in rooms that are not designated as classrooms. Kozol also examined the students lives outside of school, and how poverty affected them at home. Students are at home alone afterschool due to having single parent homes, or parents that have jobs with irregular or long hours with students frequently having obligations of their own to meet. What he describes reminds me of the atmosphere described by Ron Clark in Harlem. The dropout rates at the high school are over 50% of the kids. The students that live there, often stay there, and poverty breeds poverty. Part of the problem is the state mandated tests. Teachers feel pressure to teach the test, so that they can keep their jobs. The students get

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bored of this and fall to the pressures of society, and eventually drop-out. Again, these students do not typically leave the area, and continue the impoverished cycle. Chapter 5: The Equality of Innocence: Washington, D.C. In chapter five, we see the same story, just a different verse. Kozol begins to discuss what equity is and what it would look like across a district. He begins by addressing the question How can we achieve more equity in education in America? (Kozol, 1991) He talks to a young girl at an elementary school in Anacostia about what she would do if her school was given money. She listed several things, which most schools already had (like doors on the girls restroom stalls). After her list she said, Make it a beautiful clean building. Make it pretty. Way it is, I feel ashamed. (Kozol, 1991) This is unfortunate, and no child should feel this way. Poverty is not the only thing that affects these children. The principal goes on to say, Four years from now, one third of the little girls in this fifth grade are going to be pregnant (Kozol,1991) Many students live in the homeless shelters in the town (this breaks my heart. This chapter was a hard read.) Kozol speaks with an urban planner by the name of Delabian Rice-Thurston. She discussed the disparity of the city and the schools in it. School by school, she discusses the unpleasantness of each. It is the same we have seen in past schools discussed in the book, students are overcrowded in schools that have very poor conditions. The schools had minimal supplies needed to teach the children.

Savage Inequalities and Modern Day Classrooms

Chapter 6: The Dream Deferred, Again, in San Antonio I have a co-worker that previously taught in San Antonio ISD, she frequently calls it The hell district. When I was younger, we frequented San Antonio to see the Alamo and the river walk. I remember loving it because I was away from home, and with my family doing fun things, but I also remember how the town made me feel, even as a young child. It is a tourist town, and like most other touristy towns the community is impoverished (I felt the same feeling going to New Orleans). In San Antonio, there were lots of kids just running around (places that if I lived there, my mom would never let me go without adult supervision). The town felt dirty. There were several places where graffiti painted the town, and bars were on all the windows. There were run down homes and stores. This is the chapter where we realize education should be EQUAL. Kozol addresses more in the chapter than just schools. He speaks of the unjust the students face, and the greed Americans have. If American had to discriminate directly against other peoples children, I believe most citizens would find this morally abhorrent, (Kozol, 1991) rightfully so, but we are doing this with a blind eye through taxes. Kozol discusses the different formulas used to disperse funding and how the government has changed some to sweeten the deal for richer districts. Kozol Discusses the Rodriguez cans, and how it was to bring about change, but then later states that things have not changed very much in the poor districts of Texas after 23 years of court disputes and numerous state formula revisions, per-pupil spending ranges from 2,000 in the poorest districts to 19,000 in the richest. (Kozol, 1991) Students still go to separate, but unequal schools. Texas has now adopted the Robin Hood approach, but Texas schools are still waiting for an equal chance at education (Kozol, 1991)

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Relating it to Modern Classroom Practices

Unfortunately, these conditions still exist in modern classrooms. The funding may have balanced out, but the children still live in poverty. No matter what the school conditions are, students still have the pressures of their community and outside world. There are terrific teachers at my current school, but kids still fail because they have to work jobs afterschool to support their family, or have to watch younger siblings. However, this happens with the rich kids too. I have kids that are failing because they are not studying or doing their homework because they are in gymnastics, cheer, athletics and StuCo. Schools tend to stop at school in most situations. With the extra funding our school gets for being in an impoverished area, our teachers are able to go to professional development workshops to become better teachers for our kids. We learn strategies to use with them in class, and frequently meet to discuss how we can improve their education.

Suggested Strategies
I can think of several things that can help out impoverished schools, but many of them require funding. The two that I would suggest that do require funding are creating a trade school for high schoolers to attend, and to offer health care for students at school (there are pay-offs in both of these ideas!) If there is no additional funding for the schools, there are still ways that principals can ensure better education for their students. They can start by putting their best teachers in the most needed schools. Teachers often found at these schools are under qualified or inexperienced. Schools are often forced to teach to the test, if this pressure were reduced; more time could be

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spent on meaningful instruction. It seems that the expectations set for these students by the community are very low. Expectations need to rise, and students desire to learn will too. Finally, we need to educate the parents. The parents are the reason the students are in poverty. This could be because they dropped out of school too, or were taught by a system that didnt care. Most work a minimum wage job, or two, leaving older siblings to take care of younger ones. Education for the parents would be uplift for the community.

Support for given strategies

Trade school is a wonderful to prepare students for a productive future while still in high school. We have two career centers in our district and many, many students go on to occupy high paying trade jobs. This is almost the equivalent of offering technical school in high school. Middle-range mix of exposure to career and technical education and an academic curriculum can strengthen a students attachment to or motivation while in school. (Plank, DeLuca & Estacion, 2008) The plus sides, these types of programs are a great way for students to give back to their communities. For example, in the culinary class, students cook different dishes daily. These dishes can be taken to families in need, or to a homeless shelter. In the auto-mechanic shop, students can work on vehicles of community members while gaining knowledge for free. In the HVAC classes, students learn about heating and air, they can work on residents units and still get their education. I have heard of some districts who offer an onsite nurse a few days a week who acts like a doctor to treat sick students. They can also give vaccinations the students may have missed if there were no on-site healthcare. This ensures all students receive their vaccinations, and can get medical help when needed, instead of parents trying to find a way to drive across town to visit an

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office. School based health cares provide a place-based form of health care. Rather than serving individual patients who are united by nothing more than their selection of a particular medical practice, SBHCs serve a population of children and families united by a common institution and by the relationships they have with each other and with school staff. As the profiles illustrate, the location of clinical services in a school setting creates unique opportunities to integrate care with primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. (Clayton, Chin, Blackburn, Echeverria, 2010) Accountability, accountability, accountability. Teachers often feel the pressures of standardized test and often teach content in a way that students can use to perform well on a test. Rote drill and kill or memorization techniques that only teach students the surface of what they need to know. For example, a student may have memorized the order of the moon cycle, but cannot explain why the phenomenon happens. The pressures of the test are too great for teachers to ignore it. If we did not have them, more time would be spent on teaching students the processes of the world around them. The assessment causes teachers to skim minutes off each period of the day to create a new test-preparation period. (McClaskey, 2001) The old saying, Shoot for the moon, if you miss youll land among the stars is not technically true. The stars are FAR beyond the moon. Students know this, shouldnt the adults repeating this saying to them? If they shoot for the moon and miss, they will get pulled back down to earth, burn up on their journey down as they diminish in the atmosphere. What I mean to say, is that students will only achieve what you will allow them to. If you set the expectation of you can reach the moon, then they will never reach the stars. We need to have high, but not unreasonable, expectations for our students. They see that we believe in them, and will start believing in themselves.

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Finally, we need to educate the parents of the community. If students see their parents making choices to be educated and putting it first by being dedicated, they may do the same. They will see that their parents value education. Often, these parents are old students whom the educational system fails. They didnt understand, they had to support the family, they got pregnant, and these are all reason why people end up in impoverished communities. In anomic inner-city neighborhoods, parents must be super motivated and exceptionally competent at seeking out learning opportunities for themselves and their children to protect them from undesirable outcomes like delinquency, school dropout, or teen pregnancy. (Rosier & Corsaro, 1993) This is why educating the parents is imperative to the livelihood of the children. If the community becomes a learning community, it will benefit itself and the people in it.

Plan for School Improvement

I believe that with these ideas, schools can improve. Conditions wont be fantastic, but would be better for the kids. The ideas that I had to improve the school were investing in a career center, and a school nurse, providing education to parents, set high expectations, and not stress about standardized test as we often do. The career centers are great ideas, but would require additional funding, and it would not be included on the school improvement plan, because it is not something teachers could do directly. I think many teachers would volunteer to stay an hour after and help educate the parents; this could even be a campus requirement once a week. It would impact the community in a great way. It is education. Isnt that why we are teachers, because we believe people should be educated? Setting high expectations can be seen through classroom procedures, and the feedback

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teachers provide to students. Teachers and the principal should monitor this feedback to ensure we are raising the bar, not dropping it on their toes! Unfortunately, it does not look like standardized test are going away anytime soon. In the state of Texas, the legislature had asked for a handful of districts to participate in an alternative way to assess students. The district that I am employed in, took this imitative. We are no longer teaching to the test. We are teaching valuable hands-on ideas that students can learn from. Because we are not teaching to the test, we have more time to teach students the processes of life. If possible, there could be an afterschool program set up for students who are struggling with content and need a little test teaching. In this way, the classroom and school hours are still used learning content and life skills.

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References: Clayton, Serena; Chin, Teresa; Blackburn, Samantha; Echeverria, Cecilia (2010). Different Setting, Different Care: Integrating Prevention and Clinical Care in School-Based Health Centers. American Journal of Public Health100. 9(22), 1592-6. Kozol, J. (1991). Savage inequalities: Children in Americas schools. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers. Plank , S., DeLuca, S., & Estacion, A. (2008). High school dropout and the role of career and technical education: A survival analysis of surviving high school. Sociology of Education, 81(4), 345-370. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20452745 Rosier, K., & Corsaro, W. (1993). Competent parents, complex lives. Managing Parenthood in Poverty, 22(2), 171-204. doi: 10.1177/089124193022002002 McClaskey, J. (2001). Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad TAAS? Rethinking Our Response to Standardized Testing. The English Journal , Vol. 91, No. 1, Assessing Ourselves to Death (Sep., 2001), pp. 88-96 Published by: National Council of Teachers of English. Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/821660