Jonathan Kozol is an American writer and social justice advocate who focuses on entrenched grassroots inequality, especially in the American school system. He graduated from Harvard in 1958 and became involved in the civil rights movement in 1964. He was fired from his position as a public school teacher for teaching Langston Hughes poetry in his classes. He wrote several books exposing the problems of inequality in American schools, including Death at An Early Age (1967), which won the National Book Award, and Savage Inequalities (1992). He hopes his work will spark a serious discussion of social problems in America, perhaps eventually spurring major reforms.
Jonathan Kozol is an American writer and social justice advocate, born in Boston in 1936 to a neurologist and social worker. Many activists concerned about equality issues in American society appreciate Kozol’s writings, which provide a hard-hitting look at entrenched grassroots inequality, especially in the American school system. Along with other sociologists who focus on equality, Kozol is a popular guest lecturer at universities across the United States, and his books are must-reads in many classrooms designed to get students thinking about American education.
Kozol graduated from Harvard in 1958 and found himself traveling to England on a Rhodes Scholarship. He ended up moving to Paris, never completing his scholarship, although he received an education of a different kind. He lived in some of the poorest neighborhoods of Paris while writing his only novel, The Fume of Poppies. He returned to the United States, where he began as a tutor and later took on a teaching position in a predominantly African American neighborhood of Boston.
Upon hearing of the deaths of three civil rights activists at the hands of the Klu Klux Klan in 1964, Kozol became involved in the civil rights movement. Working intimately in an impoverished African-American neighborhood caused Kozol to begin questioning the inherent inequalities he saw around him, especially as he visited more affluent school districts that were able to offer their students so much more, educationally . Kozol wondered if it was fair in America that the area of your birth should determine the quality of your education.
When Kozol began to consider social equality issues, he was fired from his position as a public school teacher for teaching Langston Hughes poetry in his classes. While unemployed, he wrote Death at An Early Age (1967), a book about his experiences in poor, mainly African-American schools. In 1968, the book won the National Book Award. He wrote several other books exposing the problems of inequality in American schools before Savage Inequalities was published in 1992. The book shocked many readers, who were unaware of the serious social justice problems plaguing some American schools today.
In 1995, he followed up with Amazing Grace, a book focusing on the New York public school system. She examined the racial and class divisions within one of the world’s largest public school systems, and the book unsettled many readers, who were uncomfortable with the stark reality it depicted. Kozol said the book was very difficult for him to write, because living the incidents he wrote about was a very intense experience.
Kozol published The Shame of the Nation, a book about the growing informal segregation of American schools, in 2005. Some critics felt that he was exaggerating the book’s subtitle, which included the word “Apartheid,” which implies a legally sanctioned system of segregation. The book has had the intended result of stimulating discussion about inequalities in American education and society at large, an issue Kozol clearly feels very strongly about. Together with her fans, Kozol hopes his work will spark a serious discussion of social problems in America, perhaps eventually spurring major reforms.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
