Monday, October 1, 2012

Chapter 16

Kozol introduced us to some of the older children at the St. Ann's Church. One child in particular caught my attention in this chapter: Benjamin. In the beginning of the chapter, Kozol describes Benjamin as a troubled child with ADD behavior who seems to be disinterested in academics. Later, he sees a new side to Benjamin as they share a passage in a poetry book. In describing how he viewed Benjamin before the scene with the poem, Kozel writes, "If I hadn't had this opportunity to talk with him alone, I don't know if I'd have gotten past my first impression of him as a rather loose-limbed, casual, and superficial boy who seemed to laugh too easily at other kids' mistakes." He uses this scene as an example of how even he, an expert in the field of child education, can fall prey to misconceptions in children.

Also, the second half of the chapter was loaded with statistics on the positive and negative factors of learning for children in under-funded school systems, and the daunting challenges they face if they wish to rise above and break out of the system in trying to attend better middle or high schools.


2 comments:

  1. The statistics are a interesting factor in this chapter. Kozol tells us that one of the schools has a strict competition and selection process that assures that only a few kids from p.s 30 even have a chance to attend a better school

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  2. When Kozol said the quote that you used, I agree that he was trying to get across to people that it doesn't matter how well you know a child or just the behavior of children, you have to really get to know the kid before you understand and can assume things about them.

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