Monday, October 1, 2012

Chapter 16

A major theme in chapter 16 was not to be too quick to judge someone. Jonathan explains how almost every time he thought he knew one of the children, they would say or do something to make his opinions change. In chapter 16, Benjamin is an example of this. Jonathan thought he was just a troubled and superficial kid who made fun of others mistakes. Benjamin was held back in the 4th grade, and more than likely was going to be held back again. But when Jonathan was with Benjamin alone, he realized he jumped to a conclusion about the boy too quickly. Jonathan doesn't really explain what his new opinion of Benjamin is, just that his first impression is now irrelevant.

A quote from this chapter that stuck out to me was from page 271, "...the largest numbers go to Morris high, a school I visit every couple years and where, each time I do, I find myself peculiarly surprised when I am told the statistics are no better than they were the last time I was there. Approximately 1,900 boys and girls are still enrolled each year at Morris High, about 1,200 of them in the ninth-grade class alone; but there are seldom more than 65-out of 1,900!- who get to the twelfth grade and receive diplomas." This quote just blew my mind with the statistics that it gave. That just really put things into perspective for me since I had about 375 people in my graduating class.

6 comments:

  1. Agreed. Most people judge others by the first impression which is wrong and Kozol did just that. Like you said, he later finds out that Benjamin is a good, interesting boy, Kozol just judged him too quickly.

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  2. That passage stood out for me as well. It really made me reconsider the severity of the troubles and challenges I faced as a child in school, making them look trivial. Honestly, I'm a bit embarrassed that I didn't appreciate how fortunate I was to be in a good school.

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  3. its crazy of all those statistics that only a little more than 65 out of 1900 make it to the twelfth grade. and that every year they get around 1900 boys and girls that enroll at morris high.

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  4. The statistics in your quote are really out there. I had a really large graduating class too, I could only imagine if my school would have only graduated 65 students. I wrote about chapter 16 also and I had the same theme. I definitely think that the main theme was that we jump to conclusions sometimes without even knowing the person and sometimes we are wrong, Kozol realized he was wrong about Benjamin.

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  5. I agree, I had that passage marked too. The statistics are mind blowing. I could never imagine being in that situation.

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  6. I had the passage marked too. The statistics are just crazy and growing up in that life syle would be so hard. And its sad that there are schools in Marion that only graduate 65 kids a year because the school is poor.

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