Next year I will be taking a course called "Schools and Prisons," an American Studies signature course that focuses on the schools-to-prisons pipeline, a phenomenon that illustrates the ways in which students from certain public schools seem to be moved (passive voice intentional) directly into the penitentiary system. The course includes readings on educational reform, the prison-industrial complex, and more. Additionally, there is an internship component that places students at various along the pipeline, at sites varying from the Saint Paul Public Schools placement center, a prison, and a halfway house for recently incarcerated individuals. Not sure of my internship placement yet, but eager to delve into the material, I went ahead and read Jonathan Kozol's "The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America". This will probably be one of many posts on education reform in general as well as reflections on my own schooling.
For those of you who do not know: I am a third generation college student, my parents are Ivy-league educated. I attended a public magnet school in Yonkers, NY, for elementary school, attended Yonkers Middle school for 6th grade, and entered Riverdale Country School, an independent school, in 7th grade. I currently attend and will be a senior at Macalester College, a private four-year liberal arts college in Saint Paul, MN.
After doing some reading on public schools in the United States (Pedro Noguera!) and trying to process and place my own experiences within a larger context, I am very excited to have an academic space as well as an internship to delve into these issues.
Kozol's book was interesting and frustrating and illuminating. I highly recommend it for anyone with remote interest in the topic, as it is very accessible and steers away from academic jargon. Nevertheless, it is extremely relevant and pertinent to my college course. Kozol's book is based on both statistical research and ethnographic interviewing, as he travels the nation, visiting public schools and speaking with administrators, teachers and students. I think it is so important that he featured the voice of young people whose opinion might normally be dismissed from the situation. However, their experiences and reflections are core to the issue and they (we) are affected the most, so it is important to listen to students, even if they are not deemed traditional "experts."
"Shame of the Nation" addresses many important issues, including something that relates to my previous post. Kozol notes that many schools claim they are "diverse" when their student body consists of many students of color, even if not many identities and backgrounds are represented. This rhetoric of diversity to describe non-diverse school is evident many public schools in the US, but I'll use the example of a small school in Roosevelt, NY, that is almost 100% African-American. Is that really diversity? Kozol outlines the ways that many schools throughout the nation are still segregated, using the strong language of apartheid, and some of his critiques hit close to home. He talks about Stuyvesant High School, an elite NYC high school touted as "the best in the city," that is an overwhelmingly White school, given the city's racial and ethnic demographics. Additionally, he looks to the physical structure of the school; Stuyvesant has a gorgeous new building that commands attention and respect in the area, but not a single new public school has been built in the Bronx since the 1970s. He poignantly states: "There is no misery index for the children of apartheid education" (163).
Kozol looks not only at schools and school systems, but goes to a macro level to address problems like federal No Child Left Behind with over-testing, utilizing military language or business language, which treats children as commodities. Students then become evaluated in capitalist terms to become workers. While some students may be encouraged to pursue a career as an artist, a teacher, a doctor, etc., Kozol visited many schools that call all students "managers," and emphasize their goals as having only one possible career choice in the global capitalist system.
While the book presents an abundance of frustrating and saddening information, Kozol is not cynical and he advocates for legal approaches and policy initiatives. But he emphasizes that legal actions do not entirely make up a movement or a mobilization. He maintains his hope, however, which, for someone who has seen and documented schools where the physical facilities are abysmal, where students lack resources or confidence, is important and proves that the system is not entirely broken. It's easy to opt out of the public schools system and then tune out the conversation, but change can be made on large and small levels.
I am excited to have this piece as an entry point into theory, reflection on lived experience, and conversation on the topic of education reform. More textual and experiential reflections to come.
Currently reading: Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed
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