Author attacks inequities in U.S. education system
By Ashima Singal
April 13, 2005
Poor children are being deprived of educational opportunity, legendary education activist Jonathan Kozol said on Tuesday night.
Kozol is a Harvard alumnus and Rhodes scholar, but he is most well-known for being fired from his 4th grade teaching job after reading Langston Hughes poems.
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He visited a number of cities across the nation studying segregation, "the modern form of apartheid." Segregation is everywhere, not just a Southern problem, he said. His usually deep and steady voice shook when he discussed different spending levels for children.
"The ones I write about are cheap babies.," he said. "They have a price tag written on their foreheads."
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The event was co-sponsored by Hillel Cultural Life, Northwestern Community Development Corps, and For Members Only.
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Jonathan Kozol
Jonathan Kozol (born 1936 in Boston) is a nonfiction writer, educator, and activist, best known for his books of educational and social criticism. Jonathan Kozol graduated from Harvard University Summa Cum Laude (1958) and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford. He has since held two Guggenheim Fellowships, has twice been a fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation, and has also received fellowships from the Field and Ford Foundations.