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The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America
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Average Rating:  out of 53 Reviews
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Price: $14.95
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Sale: $7.60
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Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
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EAN (European Article Number): 9781400052455
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Paperback
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Author: Jonathan Kozol
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Publisher: Three Rivers Press
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Dewey Decimal Number: 379.2630973
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Publication Date: 2006-08-01
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Reading Level: 432
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Description: Over the last 15 years, the state of inner-city public schools has been in a steep and continuing decline. Since the federal courts began dismantling the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, segregation of black children has reverted to its highest level since 1968. In many inner-city schools, a stick-and-carrot method of behavioral control traditionally used in prisons is now used with students. Meanwhile, as high-stakes testing takes on pathological and punitive dimensions, liberal education has been increasingly replaced by culturally barren and robotic methods of instruction that would be rejected out of hand by schools that serve the mainstream of society.
Filled with the passionate voices of children, principals, and teachers, and some of the most revered leaders in the black community, The Shame of the Nation pays tribute to those undefeated educators who persist against the odds, but directly challenges the chilling practices now being forced upon our urban systems by the Bush administration. In their place, Kozol offers a humane, dramatic challenge to our nation to fulfill at last the promise made some 50 years ago to all our youngest citizens.
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: Very Informative |
Date: 2008-11-21 |
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Details: Jonathan Kozol's book "Shame of the Nation" is a great book to learn about the apartheid that is happening in our school systems and to learn about the separation of funding for our schools. He feels that the school system in the United States needs to become more integrated because integration would give the students an equal opportunity in the world. Predominately "white" schools get more school funding, more often from private sources, thus creating segregation in our schools. He notes the irony of the schools that are named after great leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther Kind Jr. and Rosa Parks and he reveals that such schools are in the worst condition. Jonathan Kozol's solution to this problem is to give more funding to schools that need the funds, he wants the money to go to the students that need it.
I agree with Jonathan Kozol, in the sense that the schools need more funding. Through personal experiences and with my own investigations, I've found that segregation is a common factor in society as a whole. I think that our schools need to have higher paid teachers, and teachers who are vastly more qualified than the teachers of today. The qualifications for becoming a teacher need to be more tough because these are the people who are teaching our youth, our future, and it's important that they receive the education that is necessary to have a promising future. |
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Review Summary: The Shame of the Nation Review |
Date: 2008-11-21 |
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Details: The Shame of the Nation by Jonathan Kozol, tells the story of how apartheid schooling has returned to America and is strongly rooted in inner-city areas. Kozol refers to an apartheid school as a school in the inner-city with a student body that is 98 to 100 percent black and or Hispanic. Kozol explores schools located throughout the country and exposes shocking teaching styles such as the "Skinnerian Approach," which was originally developed for use in prisons and rehabilitation programs. This approach uses strict rules and complete control to teach the children and it has led to many school's creating silent lunches and recesses, if the school has recess at all. Kozol also talks about unqualified teachers, high teacher turnover rates, poor building conditions, and unequal funding when inner-city schools are compared to suburban schools.
Kozol is a retired school teacher from Boston who started teaching in the 1960's. He brings a unique perspective into the book because he has seen what schooling was like during the civil right movement and how it has evolved to its current state. Kozol also builds strong creditability and a sense of trustworthiness because he uses hands on research to build his arguments and as he states "You have to do what children do and breathe the air children breathe . I don't think that there is any other way to find out what the lives that children lead in school are really like"(Kozol, 163).
Throughout this book Kozol does a great job of exposing segregated and unequal schools; however, his solutions to this problem are inadequate and they do not address the underlying causes. He proposes solutions that will only help a few select students in apartheid schools. His solutions if implemented would become very costly and would reduce the quality of education as a whole. For instance his solution for inter-district integration programs, which would send urban children to suburban schools and suburban children would be sent to urban schools. Does not seem like it would be very effective in the long term at improving inner-city schools.
But, Kozol's solutions are the only weak part of his book and I would recommend anyone who has the time to read this book, to do it. You wont be disappointed and you will gain tremendous knowledge about the American school system.
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Review Summary: Well, he's good at something... |
Date: 2008-11-14 |
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Details: Kozol does something extraordinarily well in this book, and that is to point out all that is going wrong with our schools. There's a point, though, when we must stop agonizing over what is wrong with the system, and make some real proposals on how to make things better. Anyone is capable of doing what Kozol did in this book, which is to simply point out the many pitfalls of our schools. In order for this to be considered a good book, he needs to complete the circle and make some recommendations about how to fix it. Simply complaining will get us nowhere, even if we complain extraordinarily well. |
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Review Summary: great look too much |
Date: 2008-10-07 |
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Details: this book is new...fresh....new....really good looking...however the shipping and handling fee was freaken $17.99 for expedite shipping...i got the book overnite! GreAT on that but..the feee is definitely too much. |
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Review Summary: All analogies few statistics |
Date: 2008-06-02 |
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Details:
Sheesh....if Kozol is suppose to be some type of expert in public education, you think he would have marshaled a few facts to bolster his case. If, as other reviewers assert, the target audience for this book is the comfortable suburban parents and schools, then the book has failed. Suburbanites are sophisticated enough to require valid data to support an argument. Kozol offers nothing but anecdote and appeals to emotion. Not very convincing. |
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