Kozol – Extended Comments based on Mike’s post

I responded with a comment to Mike’s post prior to deciding to make it the jumping off point of my own post. Specifically it was his reference to the second of three quotes, the one regarding the lack of spontaneous emotion in children or teacher during a classroom observation that inspired me. As Kozol indicates, our nation teaches inner city kids differently than those in middle class suburbs. They are taught and expected to acquiesce and conform to the power structure. The lack of spontaneity in emotion and thought cannot lead to genuine learning. Mike’s reference to the Pink Floyd video for “Another Brick in The Wall Part 2” was quite fitting. It too illustrates the plight of inner city classes Kozol describes as stifling creativity at every turn.

As Mike mentioned, another part of the Floyd video features students marching down a hallway into a tunnel where they emerge faceless and sitting at desks. The article describes curriculum that actually has a “Rubric For Filing” with 32 areas for grading. What is the purpose of grading kids in marching and filing? Where in life do those skills matter? When are those skills useful? Properly getting into single file lines or marching with the “right amount” of space between bodies are skills that only seem to be useful when following someone else’s orders in a regimented job, or in the military, or in prison. Are these the choices we are creating for millions of our children?

As in the video kids in today’s inner city public schools are being trained to follow orders and to even be robots as one educator proudly admitted. They are not learning how to learn or how to solve problems or how to truly think critically, independently and analytically. Kozol was right to call those claims “lip service” as these too are buzz words of the corporate world of lean manufacturing and efficiency. If these kids were really encouraged to “think critically” the administrators would be out of work. The kids would not be getting such a poor education. They’d revolt, as in the video, if they were truly allowed to think the thoughts, ask the questions and demand honest answers.

The regimented industry-based systems, some in place since 1995 in inner-city schools, are just more ways to say “no” to a kid’s dream. Limiting their exposure to AP classes, supportive resources, experienced teachers, relevant career education and real choices ensures (all a.k.a. a lousy system that is not working) that a kid will not pursure a dream or even allow him or herself to have one. As a nation we have stolen the curiosity and imaginations of millions of children. All those things that go into daring to dream are robbed from these kids at an early age.

In summary, today’s inner city children are having their dreams systematically crushed by the same bureaucracy that is training them to be those silent faceless workers. These are the workers who sacrifice their desires to develop the dreams and fortunes of those with influence and power. They defer their dreams so that a stranger can have his.