Kozol Intro

After our class discussion today which was based on minorities within the classroom and differences in race concerning education, I watched several videos on CNN.com to try and get a perspective right from the source, from the people who are facing these problems today. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/road.to.equality/ One woman said "it is the best time to be black in America and yet the worst". People are gaining independence, they have role models to look up to and yet they still feel they are unfortunate. They see people within their race who have accomplished but yet they can not do the same. They feel the brunt of American concerns today. Every culture, every race faces money problems and poverty problems, however African Americans feel like they are more directly impacted by it, according to this woman's video. According to Kozol, minorities face these inequalities in the classroom and some of them don't even realize or are angered by their situation. They simply accept the rotten floors, the dirty rooms and the old textbooks. They do not fight, they became angry with the teachers or principles but it seems to be misdirected anger, they should be angry at the educational system. These children grow up thinking this is how life is. Kozol goes on to discuss the one child who knew what was being done to her. She was resitant and cold, she just sat there, knowing but not saying anything. Rather than fighting she remained stagnant. I went to an all white, Jewish high school on Long Island. I knew there were poverty stricken schools out there in the US and I knew there were richer, more elite schools, however I never understood to what extent there was poverty in the educational system. I wonder if these kids know they are not being taught in the norm, do they understand they can do better? I was taught to fight for what I believed in, but these kids are clearly taught to accept their conditions as a part of their lives. If there is supposed to be equality in the educational system, how come there is no equality when it comes to a dream? Economically there is a struggle within the school systems, but does that have to impede learning? Shouldn't we all have the same ambitions, the same dreams, the same goals in life? Shouldn't we all want to succeed? Just because a classroom does not have windows or books doesn't mean these kids can't get a good education on life. I wonder if these teachers came from the same circumstance, and if so wouldn't they want better for the next generation?