The Shame of the Nation Question List 2 (Chapters 6-10):

  1. What do you think of the superintendent Thomas Sobol’s view on standard testing (P. 131) and Kozol’s reflection of Sobol’s comment? Elaborate your view.
  1. The “tale of two cities” in Chapter 6 suggests the existence of a dual educational system in America. Explain this view presented in this chapter with three examples, and offer your own comments.

The “tale of two cities,” as stated by David Dinkins in 1986, really directs itself to the difference between schools in the South Bronx and schools like Stuyvesant (p.141). The whole concept is presented as an issue of “those in the know” and “those who do not know.”

For parents who have historically been white, upper-middle-class, the knowledge of the requirements of the schools are ingrained in them from their own childhood. For those who grew up in the Bronx, and may never have left, the idea that these schools exist is only some vague notion of an esoteric community to which they do not belong. Schools in Harlem are presented as full classes of 30 or more students with unqualified teachers. The district office does not present options that exist to the parents of children in that community (p. 144).

Another issue with these schools is the sever overcrowding – the example presented is Walton High, “built to hold 1,800 kids, the school held 3,400 (p.145). The lunch room sequence from 9:42 until 2:19 is just another horror story. The pure pity of it is that the Bronx High School of Science (BHSS) is nearby, and the students attending Walton, do not see BHSS as an option.

At yet another school, elementary and middle schoolers are learning to sew and to write checks. Roosevelt schools might have been disbanded but for the extreme ire of the neighboring schools. The students would not have been welcomed. While the community of East Meadow presents the issue as one of class, not of race, the two coincide so extensively, the division blurs.

For all the horrors present by Kozol, there has been change. Stuyvesant was present by Kozol as being less than 3% minority. While the graph I was able to find ( did not give numbers, it is apparent that between a third and a half of the students there are now minority. To enter Stuyvesant requires a score on an achievement test. The test is available to anyone, and can be free upon request. Students from areas, such as Harlem and the South Bronx, do not try for Stuyvesant, they may not even know it is an option.

Informed choices make a difference. As Kozol notes repeatedly, those who attend better elementary schools, frequently attend better middle and high schools. The issue needs to be addressed at the lower level schools. While the students at the middle and high schools are certainly not beyond redemption, it is my considered opinion, that a marked change in early elementary education and pushed from the bottom up would make the most lasting change.

  1. Based on the substandard conditions in the schools described in Chapter 7, to what motives does Kozol attribute the state of public schooling for the nation’s poor? Do you agree or disagree with him? Explain.
  2. In Chapter 8, False Promises, Kozol claims that many of today’s school reform promises to guarantee successful outcomes in our nation’s segregated and unequal public schools have been broken. Cite three examples in the chapter to comment his claim.
  3. What have the eugenics theories been used to justify school re-segregation, according to Kozol in Chapter 8?
  4. “A political movement is a necessary answer” to the problem of school racial segregation, cited Gary Orfield in Chapter 9. Explain his position, and offer your own comments.

Gary Orfield presents that “A political movement is a necessary answer” (p.221), and goes onto require a “broader sector of the nation to initiate a struggle” (p. 222). Gary Orfield moved his organization, The Civil Rights Project, with himself to UCLA in 2007 from Harvard where it was established. In his work, he presents that the model of integration in the Berkely Unified School District (BUSD) should be followed elsewhere.

Instead, BUSD uses geography on two different levels: (1) three attendance zones and (2) 445 “planning areas” consisting of 4–8 residential blocks that are assigned a diversity category according to the area’s racial-ethnic, economic and educational demographics. (

His work has not really changed. He still presents that, “it is increasingly important for these racial justice workers to make effective use of research and policy analysis, and to reach out more aggressively to the media, legislators, school leaders and other key players” (

Orfield notes that those in the federal government have good ideas, but fail to look at local situations. As I see it, a broad brush-stroke of equality painted across our nation will leave streaks of unchanged territory. Mandates from Washington, must be implemented in places like Long Beach, California without the resources at the local level to do so. While the program in Berkely may be successful, it has taken years of focused effort to make it the model of integration that it is. He believes in mandates from the federal government, but sees a still greater importance in the engaged efforts of state an local politics.

While I concur in the need for engaged efforts and communication between local, state, and federal politicians, my background leads me to believe that the community to district relationship is of a more critical value. I harken to Kozol's examples in New York, where commissioners of schools are worn through with the effort of bringing balance out of inequity. Again, I must reiterate my stance from my other blog. The change must start in the earliest levels of education. Each child deserves a sound education. However, the constructs of education need to begin with the youngest of students. If an effort were pushed with more focus onto those little children, the results would pay out within ten years! In the constructs of social time, ten years is little enough to make the effort more than worth the money.

  1. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that racial segregation in education is unconstitutional. Given this, should the federal government have to address these issues that Kozol uncovers in his research? Why or why not?
  2. Comment on the school funding inequalities addressed in Chapter 10, and consider the question why there is lacking of a national response to the “de facto world of segregated schools.”