24. Jonathan Kozol

PATRICIA A. CRAWFORD

24. JONATHAN KOZOL

Writer, Intellect, and Powerful Voice for the Marginalized

Jonathan Kozol is one of the most recognizable and widely known critical pedagogues of this generation. For nearly half a century, he has forcefully, tenaciously, and persuasively argued that the public school system in America is broken; that by its very nature it does not serve the needs of all children, particularly those who are Black, Hispanic, or poor. Rather, he argues, urban schools are too frequently constructed in ways that isolate, demean, and disenfranchise the very people they were intended to serve. Like many critical pedagogues, Kozol’s work has consistently addressed issues of race, class, equity, and hegemonic dominance. However, unlike many who work in the field, Kozol has chosen to position his work directly at the intersection of critical thought and popular culture. While many critical writings are aimed at an academic readership and characterized by a dense professional lexicon, Kozol has chosen to make his work accessible to a wide variety of readers. His style of writing is straight forward; his tone blending passionate and personal perspectives of life and schooling in some of the poorest areas in the United States. The result has been that the sharp, yet poignant, social critiques put forth in Kozol’s work have reached an amazingly broad audience. Kozol’s work includes a National Book Award winner, Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools (1967), as well as several New York Times best sellers, including Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools (1991), Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation (1995), Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope (2000), and The Shame of the Nation: Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America (2006). Few works related to critical pedagogy have received this type of recognition and acceptance among those in the academy and general public alike.

EARLY LIFE AND THE MAKING OF AN ACTIVIST

Jonathan Kozol was born on September 5, 1936. Reared in a Jewish Boston household, his father worked as a psychiatrist and neurologist and his mother as a social worker. From an early age, Kozol aspired to be a writer; a passion which led him to an Ivy League education. He enrolled in the English Literature program at

Harvard College, from which he graduated summa cum laude in 1958. A Rhodes Scholarship afforded him the opportunity to continue his studies at Oxford. Prior to returning to the United States, Kozol lived in Paris, where he honed his writing skills in both fiction and nonfiction, working alongside notable authors and social critics, such as Richard Wright (Raney, 1998; Shetterly, 2006). Clearly, there is no single event that makes one an activist. However, when Kozol returned to 1960s America, he was confronted by the fervor of the Civil Rights Movement and by the passionate concern and activism demonstrated among young people. In particular, he was gripped by the 1964 murder of the three civil rights workers in Mississippi. As the injustice and horrific details surrounding this case emerged, Kozol felt compelled to respond in a tangible way. He did so by applying to teach reading at a freedom school in Roxbury, a key hub of Boston’s Black community. It was here that he first gained direct experience with both the inequities that characterized segregation and the hope that comes from working directly with children. These factors drew him toward the goal of becoming a public school teacher and at least initially, away from the writing career to which he had aspired (Kozol, 1991; 2006; Raney, 1998). In the fall of 1964, Kozol applied to be a teacher in the Boston public schools. With no teaching certificate, he was relegated to the role of substitute, eventually teaching the fourth grade. Kozol’s journey during that year is well chronicled in Death at an Early Age (1967), in which he describes the shock of encountering a totally segregated system; one characterized by dangerous conditions, a lack of resources, prejudiced teachers, and a curriculum that held little relevance to the lives and learning of students. Kozol witnessed the crushing impact of this system on children’s academic achievement, as well as on their mental health. He became convinced that the mis- education he witnessed was not a random act, but rather a systematic and political one, designed to maintain the status quo of a race and class segregated populace. Before the end of his first year, Kozol was fired for introducing the non- sanctioned poetry of Langston Hughes into the curriculum. Death at an Early Age received national acclaim shortly after its publication and continues to be a touchstone text today. After leaving the Boston public schools, Kozol went on to teach in the wealthy public schools of Newton, Massachusetts. He then returned to Boston to work in the development of Free Schools, as an alternative to the public education system. He also used this opportunity to continue his writing and social justice work.

WRITING FOR CHANGE

In the years following the release of Death at an Early Age, Kozol’s writing became characterized by the articulation of a more pronounced political stance. It was during this period that he began an enduring friendship with Paulo Freire. Like Freire’s work, Kozol’s writing emphasized the significance of emancipatory learning and encouraged educators to work collectively with students, families, and colleagues to