Reflecting on a Good Lecture

After recently attending a lecture by Johnathan Kozol at Temple University in Philadelphia, my recently kindled fire to see justice and equity in America's public schools was certainly fueled, but the underlying dilemma that was created from listening to Kozol speak was where I stand on certain issues regarding urban education and politics. The conservative background in which I was raised surely has given me preconveived ideas and beliefs on politicla stance. Kozol's "liberal" view of education, funding, equity, standards, testing, and justice are foundational to a revolutionized educational system that reflects democracy, and it was in his lecture that I started to question much of what I always believed.

To my surprise, Kozol stated that Pennsylvania is number four from the bottom of fifty states in inequality of schools, namely segregated public schools. This nation may have had a government-sanctioned apartheid a number of decades ago, but we continue to have a socioeconomic apartheid in existence today in schools in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Camden, and right where we are learning today, New York City! The situation of these segregated schools is a result of white privilege and black opression. In New York, upper-middle class families are aggressively fighting to have their child enrolled for $20,000/year in "Baby Ivies," or preschools of the Ive League caliber that are already preparing privileged three year olds for high success. Kozol zealously stated that these segregated public schools should not have the sword of standards placed on their young children who have not had the opportunity to learn thorugh pre-school organizations. The inequity of separate but equal schooling is a direct contradiction to this nation's supposed democracy.

Jonathan Kozol's lecture has interested me, informed me, and cause me to search for my place in the fight for equitable schooling for all of the child of the U S of A!