Jonathon Kozol

Dear Mr. President,   I am a new graduate from the University of Washington with aspirations to teach the youth of America in the upcoming years.  Through my studies, I have been exposed to the discrepancies that plague our current educational system, and the various possible solutions offered by experts in the field.  This letter is to share my concerns with the current system, offer potential solutions to tackle some of the issues, and question how your education reform will provide the necessary tools for future teachers, like me, to combat the inequities of education. “Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of social machinery.”-Horace Mann. Education’s purpose, in essence, is to successfully prepare America’s youth to be productive citizens in a democratic society.  Is this truly how it functions?  At present, there is a catastrophic achievement gap that haunts students of low socio-economic backgrounds and the teachers that desperately fight to keep their students from falling into the pit of failure.  The two largest causes for this is the unequal funding that resides in America and the emphasis on standardized tests as the measurement of success.  It is most blaringly apparent that children suffer from unequal funding.  Jonathon Kozol, in his book Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools, sheds light upon the massive imbalance of student funding that occurs in school districts.  During the time he wrote his novel, Chicago spent “some $5500 for each student in its secondary schools” compared to the “$8500 to $9000 in each high school student in the highest-spending suburbs” (Kozol, 54).  His analysis of suburb versus city schools is clear: there is more access and opportunity to children who reside in affluent neighborhoods.  “Equity, after all, does not mean simply equal funding.  Equal funding for unequal needs is not equality” (Kozol, 54).  The current educational system rewards children who come from more affluent backgrounds with more resources, a better education, and an opportunity for success. It also leaves those most in need destined to fail, because they were born into poverty, a fact of life beyond their control. Like unequal funding, standardized tests have robbed students of their passion for knowledge and replaced it with defeat and failure to live up to its subjective expectations.  Statistics infect our media with the constant messages that the nation’s youth are failing to make the cut in knowledge.  To combat this, schools have begun “teaching to the test” in efforts to increase achievement in standards within districts poorest performing and funded schools.  Linda Perlstein discusses this model in Tested: One American School Struggle to Make the Grade and brilliantly illustrates that while students may pass the test, the test-focused curriculum stifles the creativity and intellectual development that fosters desire to learn more.  One academic strategy used within the school was to create an open board for students to place open-ended questions about the material they were learning.  While some questions were left unanswered because the teacher had no answer to give, the majority were left “because the need to get through the material seemed more pressing” (Perlstein, 77).  Tyler Heights is symbolic of the current education that is utilized in inner-city schools.  There is an incessant desire to measure success by a score, rather than the amount of knowledge the student consistently applies and their passion for knowledge.  The standardized testing model stifles the imagination of both students and teachers, and the chance that the desire to learn will begin.   Is there a solution to conquer the immense obstacles that block the path towards equal education for all of America’s youth?  One way to combat both unequal funding and the measurement of student success is by remodeling and uplifting the community, as seen through Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone and his “Conveyor Belt Strategy.”  As reflected upon in Paul Tough’s Whatever It Takes, Canada believed the only way in which to propel children of the ghetto to success was to become involved with each child’s life, from their mother’s pregnancy, till they graduate high school.  While a child growing up in East Harlem has many obstacles facing him, his family has received education through Canada’s programs, like the Baby college, and would “now had the tools to stop” each child from falling behind academically (Tough, 260).  Arming not only the children, but also the parents, with knowledge and resources not offered in their community, brings each child closer and closer to closing the achievement gap that stigmatizes them.  Canada’s early intervention programs are successful.  His pre-kindergarten school “Harlem Gems” received children that scored below average on the Bracken scale but after one year the children scored significantly higher and “over three years, not a single student was considered delayed or very delayed after a year of Gems” (Tough, 207).  The children’s success and the community’s dedication toward rebuilding the future of its youth show the success that can be made if access and opportunity is provided. Along with reaching within the community and creating access, remodeling teaching to incorporate a democratic ideal, will invigorate the education system and give it, along with children, new life.  Stephanie Meier believes, in her book The Power of Their Ideas, that teaching students democratic qualities will foster intellectual and academic growth.  With a collaborative model for example, involving not only staff in educational decisions, but also the students and family creates “a larger community” formed on “mutual respect” in the name of democracy (Meier, 22).  By incorporating the students and families in the politics of education, the students are more invested in their education, and gain the skills needed to become productive in larger society.  By also teaching with compassion, Meier and her fellow teachers illustrate that by learning these qualities, your student understands “the root of both intellectual skepticism and empathy” (Meier, 63).  “Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen”-Horace Mann. I am not an expert of education but I do see a necessity for change.  Our society is modeled on democracy, but yet millions are robbed of the opportunity to be successful because of the circumstances from which they were born.  I do not believe each solution I have offered is the perfect model for reform.  Each has weaknesses that must be addressed.  Like the quote above however, I believe the time for action is now, and I am anxious to know and see the reforms that you plan to enact.  Thank you for your time and consideration.  Sincerely,   Desiree Robinette Read more about Question on Education Reform