so we were required to go to the lecture given at kimball theatre tonight by jonathan kozol, and i have to say that i am very glad that we were told to go to this event. he was amazing.
when i decided that i wanted to become a teacher i was fairly certain that i would not be able to handle teaching in the suburbs, with privileged children who are handed everything by their upper middle class parents. the thought of teaching in an inner city setting has always held an allure to me; urban school children need good teachers and need help to get out of the bad situation that society perpetuates for them, and i saw myself as a way to help out. so when jonathan kozol was talking about his work in inner cities all over the nation it spoke to my heart.
i had never heard of kozol before tonight, but after hearing him speak for a little over an hour, i have a desire to read all of his books to understand more about the work he has done to reintegrate schools, and to understand more about the drive to help the underprivileged. i signed up on his sheet so that hopefully he will be in touch with more information, the educator's attempt at networking.
when kozol discussed the fact that within the inner city school systems of most big cities in the united states the schools are essentially as segregated as they were before the civil rights movement it sent chills down my spine. why should the wealthy be the only ones to benefit from a good education? and why is society insisting on keeping the country segregated? and possibly even more importantly, what are we going to do about ending the cycle that people who are born in the inner cities suffer from? (here i refer to the cycle wherein jobs move to the suburbs, and so do all of the people who can afford it; then there are the people who can only afford the housing in the rundown areas of the inner city who can't get to the jobs in the suburbs because they are too far away or transportation is bad. or even, when the jobs move to the suburbs they become skilled labor jobs, so the people who live in the inner city and can't get to the jobs anyways, can also now not work in those jobs because, for the most part, they are part of the unskilled labor workforce, and they can't become skilled laborers because their schools are so run down. really the people who live in the inner city don't have a chance; society keeps perpetuating this, and the situation continually gets worse.)
anyways. kozol got me fired up and excited to teach. and hopefully deborah walker will soon get ahold of the school in hampton so that i can at least observe an urban school, which will be much different from the suburban jamestown high school where i currently observe.
when i decided that i wanted to become a teacher i was fairly certain that i would not be able to handle teaching in the suburbs, with privileged children who are handed everything by their upper middle class parents. the thought of teaching in an inner city setting has always held an allure to me; urban school children need good teachers and need help to get out of the bad situation that society perpetuates for them, and i saw myself as a way to help out. so when jonathan kozol was talking about his work in inner cities all over the nation it spoke to my heart.
i had never heard of kozol before tonight, but after hearing him speak for a little over an hour, i have a desire to read all of his books to understand more about the work he has done to reintegrate schools, and to understand more about the drive to help the underprivileged. i signed up on his sheet so that hopefully he will be in touch with more information, the educator's attempt at networking.
when kozol discussed the fact that within the inner city school systems of most big cities in the united states the schools are essentially as segregated as they were before the civil rights movement it sent chills down my spine. why should the wealthy be the only ones to benefit from a good education? and why is society insisting on keeping the country segregated? and possibly even more importantly, what are we going to do about ending the cycle that people who are born in the inner cities suffer from? (here i refer to the cycle wherein jobs move to the suburbs, and so do all of the people who can afford it; then there are the people who can only afford the housing in the rundown areas of the inner city who can't get to the jobs in the suburbs because they are too far away or transportation is bad. or even, when the jobs move to the suburbs they become skilled labor jobs, so the people who live in the inner city and can't get to the jobs anyways, can also now not work in those jobs because, for the most part, they are part of the unskilled labor workforce, and they can't become skilled laborers because their schools are so run down. really the people who live in the inner city don't have a chance; society keeps perpetuating this, and the situation continually gets worse.)
anyways. kozol got me fired up and excited to teach. and hopefully deborah walker will soon get ahold of the school in hampton so that i can at least observe an urban school, which will be much different from the suburban jamestown high school where i currently observe.
1 comment:
I am so sorry I was away and had to miss Kozol. He is a powerful voice for the underprivileged and would be a great inspiration. Glad he's got you fired up...I could put you in touch with a principal in Portsmouth who would be happy to have you observe if you like.
Post a Comment