Podcast appearances and mentions of Jonathan Kozol

As timely as any book can possibly be, There Is No Place for Us is a sweeping and comprehensive journalistic investigation into a troubling new trend in American cities. Brian Goldstone joins us to talk about the realities of housing insecurity, on-the-ground reporting, narrative structure and more with Miwa Messer, host of Poured Over. This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang.                      New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app.  Featured Books (Episode): There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone Nickel and Dime: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich Evicted by Matthew Desmond Invisible Child by Andrea Elliot  Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America by Jonathan Kozol

From 2008- Jonathan Kozol, author of "Letters to a Young Teacher."

In this episode, Jim Knight engages in a heartfelt conversation with Jennifer Hlavka, who shares her journey in education and her passion for teaching. Jennifer reflects on her early experiences in school, highlighting the profound impact her high school in Richmond, Virginia, had on her love for education. She recalls how her teachers were deeply invested in their students, fostering an environment where she looked forward to learning every day.A pivotal moment for Jennifer was reading Jonathan Kozol's "Savage Inequalities" during her college years. This book opened her eyes to the stark disparities in educational experiences based on geography, igniting her desire to pursue a career in public education. She joined Teach for America and taught in Baltimore City, eventually transitioning into teacher development, where she now supports educators in achieving their career goals.Jennifer expresses her excitement about her upcoming presentations at the Teaching Learning Coaching (TLC) conference. She will lead a pre-conference session on "Better Conversations," emphasizing the importance of effective communication in both personal and professional relationships. She believes that improving conversations can significantly enhance the quality of life and work.At the conference, Jennifer will also conduct a series of sessions focused on coaching for positive classrooms, engagement, and achievement. She hopes to create a collaborative environment where educators can share strategies and insights, ultimately keeping students at the forefront of their efforts.Throughout the discussion, Jennifer's enthusiasm for education and her commitment to fostering meaningful connections shine through. She emphasizes that the quality of conversations in schools directly influences student experiences and outcomes, reinforcing her belief that educators must prioritize student voices in their practices.Learn how the Impact Cycle can make a difference in students lives by clicking here.Are you a Radical Learner interested in taking asynchronous courses to improve the way you teach? click here 

Legendary public school reform advocate, Jonathan Kozol, joins us to discuss his latest book “An End To Inequality: Breaking Down the Walls of Apartheid Education in America.” Then, we do a deep dive into the scourge that is kratom, the dangerous so-called pain relief supplement our guest, lawyer Matt Wetherington, calls “gas station heroin.”Jonathan Kozol is a leading advocate for equality and racial justice in our nation's schools, and he travels and lectures about educational inequality and racial injustice. Mr. Kozol is the author of nearly a dozen books about young children and their public schools, including Death at an Early Age (for which he received the National Book Award), Savage Inequalities, and The Shame of the Nation. His latest book is An End to Inequality: Breaking Down the Walls of Apartheid Education in America.I still give [Jonathan Kozol's book Death at an Early Age] out to people to show them what indignant writing backed by irrefutable evidence is like. There's too much cool writing in America today about ghastly situations.Ralph NaderThe Brown decision is now like the Ghost of Christmas Past.  Most school officials have pretty much turned their back on the legacy of Brown and the dream of Dr. King, who was very explicit in his condemnation of segregated schools. I find it particularly heartbreaking that segregation is now at its highest level since the early 1990s. And many of the schools I visit are far more deeply segregated than the one that I described in Death in Early Age.Jonathan KozolWe hear a lot about the “school-to-prison pipeline,” but this is a case where the prison is already there. It's right there. They don't have to wait 20 years. Children get a taste of our racist penal system when they're barely out of diapers.Jonathan KozolThe excuse, of course, we always hear in the big cities is that finances are scarce— “We would love to make these corrections. We would love to build new buildings. We would love to clean out the lead. But we just don't have enough resources to do this.” I call it the myth of scarcity. It's starvation funding for minority children in one of the richest nations in the world.Jonathan KozolI'm always asked, “Why don't you come up with upbeat suggestions?” I always say I'm not going to be forced into a phony optimism to please my critics. The fact is, right now, we have a racist and autocratic education system teed specifically to the historic victims of American society. And it's not gonna change until teachers can expand their reach politically to the parents of their children, to the surrounding communities, to the unions—not only the teacher unions, but other unions of all sorts—in order to transform the political leadership of this nation.Jonathan KozolMatt Wetherington is ​​a nationally-recognized lawyer focused on high-stakes cases involving personal injury, wrongful death, and class actions. He currently represents plaintiffs in a wrongful death lawsuit against more than a dozen defendants, including manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of Kratom products.Under the guise of safety, the [American Kratom Association] have tricked legislatures— and now they're trying to do it on the federal level—into making a product that is dangerous, deadly, and has absolutely no proven medicinal purpose, de facto legal.Matt WetheringtonThe kratom industry is trying to put the burden on safety advocates to prove that kratom is unsafe. Rather than going through the normal model that literally every other drug has gone through, which is to prove a medicinal purpose before it can be sold anywhere. They've put the cart ahead of the horse here by saying, until you can prove that it's unsafe, you can get this heroin-like drug at any gas station. So I reject the premise that we have to be the ones that come out and prove that this is unsafe. And the reality is that they have the burden of proving that it has a medicinal purpose.Matt WetheringtonIn Case You Haven't Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 3/19/241. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, delivered a watershed speech on the Senate floor last week calling for the United States to use its influence to rein in the Israeli government as it continues to commit genocidal atrocities in Gaza. Listen to Michigan highlighted an excerpt of Senator Schumer's speech, wherein he said “if Prime Minister Netanyahu...continues to pursue dangerous and inflammatory policies that test existing U.S. standards for assistance, then the United States will have no choice but to play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course.” While a mere baby step, this movement of the Overton Window – allowing even the discussion of conditioning military aid to Israel – is a radical departure from decades of unquestioning U.S. assistance and co-belligerency in Israel's wars. This is also undeniable evidence that the massive protest movement against U.S. support for Israel's genocidal campaign, including the “Uncommitted” electoral campaign, has worked. In other words, keep it up, they are feeling the heat.2. Schumer's speech comes amid a growing realization from the Biden campaign that this issue is not going away. A raft of media reports suggest that the president has been “incensed to the point of shouting and swearing,” per Business Insider, over his low poll numbers in critical swing states, attributed to his handling of the slaughter in Gaza. And just this week, Palestinian-American as well as other Arab- and Muslim-American leaders refused to meet with senior White House officials in Chicago, instead publishing a letter via CAIR stating “There is no point in more meetings. The White House already knows the position of the aforementioned groups and our allies across the nation…They know because we have made it abundantly clear, including in prior meetings with the White House, but also in press statements, letters to our elected leaders, media interviews, and enormous street action within earshot of the Oval Office.” According to the Huffington Post, “The rejection comes after a string of refusals across the country from Arab and Muslim groups over longstanding frustrations over the war in Gaza…Several members of the Palestinian American community refused to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken last month in Washington…[and] In Michigan, Arab and Muslim community leaders canceled a listening session in February with…Biden's campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez.”3. More suspicious details have emerged regarding the death of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett. Yahoo Finance reports that Barnett was planning to drive home to Louisiana following his deposition on Friday March, 8th. Boeing lawyers then asked him to stay an extra day to finish his testimony, and Barnett was found dead the morning of March 9th. Additionally, ABC News 4 in Charleston reports that shortly before his death – allegedly by suicide – Barnett told a close family friend “I ain't scared, but if anything happens to me, it's not suicide.'” 4. In more Boeing news, the New York Times reports “The company failed 33 of 89 audits during an examination conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration,” following the Alaska Airlines door plug incident. The Times piece goes on “The F.A.A. said it could not release specifics about the audit because of its active investigation into Boeing in response to the Alaska Airlines episode. In addition to that inquiry, the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating what caused the door panel to blow off the plane, and the Justice Department has begun a criminal investigation.”5. A disturbing NBC story chronicles how the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) – a nationwide group of clinics which effectively helped autistic children to “cope, learn and communicate” – was purchased and deformed by the Blackstone Group, resulting in abuse of the children in their facilities. The founder of CARD is quoted in this article saying “[under Blackstone's ownership] the company added costly executives, increased CARD's debt and struck expensive contracts with third-party providers. The new CEO had no experience in autism services…he had run a kidney dialysis company.” This story has a bit of a happy ending – after running CARD into the ground, Blackstone actually sold the company back to the founder who is setting things right. As she says in the piece “You have to watch over the company…It is an entity, not an endless bank account.” This story highlights the human cost of private equity gobbling up the economy while regulators are overwhelmed or asleep at the wheel.6. In some positive news, Nikkei Asia reports “Japan's largest labor confederation [The 7 million-member Japanese Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo] said Friday that its [771] member unions won an average 5.28% increase in wages this year, the biggest raise since 1991.”7. In more positive labor news, CNN reports that the United Auto Workers (UAW) has filed for a union election for the over 4,000 workers at the Chattanooga, Tennessee Volkswagen facility. This is the first major test of UAW's campaign to unionize autoworkers at foreign-owned plants in the United States. The union intends to organize workers at BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Mazda, Mercedes, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Volvo and Volkswagen as well as the non-union EV companies like Tesla, Rivian and Lucid. UAW has previously said that they would not file for an election until they had won 70% support among the workers, with this filing implying they have reached that threshold. President Biden has publicly come out in support of this campaign, issuing a statement on March 18th reading “I congratulate the Volkswagen autoworkers in Chattanooga who filed for a union election with the UAW. As one of the world's largest automakers, many Volkswagen plants internationally are unionized…I believe American workers, too, should have a voice at work.”8. Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced a bill to establish a standard 32-hour workweek. In a press release, Sanders wrote “Today, American workers are over 400 percent more productive than they were in the 1940s. And yet, millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages than they were decades ago…The financial gains from the major advancements in artificial intelligence, automation, and new technology must benefit the working class, not just corporate CEOs and wealthy stockholders on Wall Street. It is time to reduce the stress level in our country and allow Americans to enjoy a better quality of life.” This legislation was announced ahead of a HELP Committee hearing on the same topic, featuring Shawn Fain, President of the UAW and Dr. Juliet Schor, Professor of Sociology at Boston College and Lead Researcher for Four Day Week Global Trials.9. A story in the American Prospect has to do with a study by the Center for Working Class Politics. This study looked at all 966 Democratic candidates who ran in House or Senate primaries in 2022. What did they find? “Candidates who used economic populist rhetoric won higher vote shares in general elections, especially in working-class, rural and small-town districts.” In other words, broad-base, left-wing economic populism. It works.10. Finally, NBC reports that the DNC is assembling an anti-third party squad in an attempt to force voters into a binary choice between Biden and Trump in November. This team will be led by the infamous political operator Lis Smith, who helped cover up Andrew Cuomo's serial sexual harassment. Another prominent member is Pat Dennis, president of Democratic opposition research firm American Bridge, who is quoted saying “A lot of people, including me, regret that we didn't go after [Jill Stein] further,” blaming Stein for costing Hillary Clinton states in the midwest despite numerous missteps by the Clinton campaign – like not visiting Wisconsin in the entire course of the general election. Yet to figures like Smith and Dennis, the Democratic Party cannot fail, it can only be failed.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

If you have cared about equality in education in recent decades, you know of the work of America’s foremost advocate for public schools Jonathan Kozol. In schools named after Martin Luther King Jr, he sees a new punitive autocratic pedagogic The post The Irony of Racism in Decrepit MLK Urban Schools appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.

For nearly 60 years Jonathan Kozol has been one of the most widely read and highly honored education writers in the nation. Ready for a sneak preview of his next book?

Do survivors of life's greatest trials possess a secret knowledge? Is there an art to survival―a map for crossing the wilderness―or daily life? Why do some people blossom through adversity while others stop growing? Drawing on twenty years' experience in this field, using stories, parable, and scientific data, acclaimed memoirist Mark Matousek gives the first-ever comprehensive look at this mysterious phenomenon of viriditas, the power of drawing passion, beauty, and wisdom from the unlikeliest places. Matousek interviews hundreds of well-known survivors―including Joan Didion, Elie Wiesel, and Isabel Allende―and experts such as Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jonathan Kozol, and Sogyal Rimpoche. He includes extraordinary testimonials, from a Tibetan nun imprisoned by the Chinese at age eleven and the women of Calama, Chile, digging for their "disappeared," among countless others. Drawing insight and advice from these many heroic individuals, Matousek presents a chorus of wisdom for how to survive our own lives―the vicissitudes of being human―and prevail. Watch/Listen https://www.facebook.com/transformationtalkradio/live_videos/

Do survivors of life's greatest trials possess a secret knowledge? Is there an art to survival―a map for crossing the wilderness―or daily life? Why do some people blossom through adversity while others stop growing? Drawing on twenty years' experience in this field, using stories, parable, and scientific data, acclaimed memoirist Mark Matousek gives the first-ever comprehensive look at this mysterious phenomenon of viriditas, the power of drawing passion, beauty, and wisdom from the unlikeliest places. Matousek interviews hundreds of well-known survivors―including Joan Didion, Elie Wiesel, and Isabel Allende―and experts such as Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jonathan Kozol, and Sogyal Rimpoche. He includes extraordinary testimonials, from a Tibetan nun imprisoned by the Chinese at age eleven and the women of Calama, Chile, digging for their "disappeared," among countless others. Drawing insight and advice from these many heroic individuals, Matousek presents a chorus of wisdom for how to survive our own lives―the vicissitudes of being human―and prevail. Watch/Listen https://www.facebook.com/transformationtalkradio/live_videos/

Do survivors of life's greatest trials possess a secret knowledge? Is there an art to survival―a map for crossing the wilderness―or daily life? Why do some people blossom through adversity while others stop growing? Drawing on twenty years' experience in this field, using stories, parable, and scientific data, acclaimed memoirist Mark Matousek gives the first-ever comprehensive look at this mysterious phenomenon of viriditas, the power of drawing passion, beauty, and wisdom from the unlikeliest places. Matousek interviews hundreds of well-known survivors―including Joan Didion, Elie Wiesel, and Isabel Allende―and experts such as Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jonathan Kozol, and Sogyal Rimpoche. He includes extraordinary testimonials, from a Tibetan nun imprisoned by the Chinese at age eleven and the women of Calama, Chile, digging for their "disappeared," among countless others. Drawing insight and advice from these many heroic individuals, Matousek presents a chorus of wisdom for how to survive our own lives―the vicissitudes of being human―and prevail. Watch/Listen https://www.facebook.com/transformationtalkradio/live_videos/

The Dr. Pat Show: Talk Radio to Thrive By!: When You're Falling, Dive: Lessons in the Art of Living with Mark Matousek. Do survivors of life's greatest trials possess a secret knowledge? Is there an art to survival?a map for crossing the wilderness?or daily life? Why do some people blossom through adversity while others stop growing? Drawing on twenty years' experience in this field, using stories, parable, and scientific data, acclaimed memoirist Mark Matousek gives the first-ever comprehensive look at this mysterious phenomenon of viriditas, the power of drawing passion, beauty, and wisdom from the unlikeliest places. Matousek interviews hundreds of well-known survivors?including Joan Didion, Elie Wiesel, and Isabel Allende?and experts such as Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jonathan Kozol, and Sogyal Rimpoche. He includes extraordinary testimonials, from a Tibetan nun imprisoned by the Chinese at age eleven and the women of Calama, Chile, digging for their "disappeared," among countless others. Drawing insight and advice from these many heroic individuals, Matousek presents a chorus of wisdom for how to survive our own lives?the vicissitudes of being human?and prevail. Website: https://markmatousek.com/

The Dr. Pat Show: Talk Radio to Thrive By!: When You're Falling, Dive: Lessons in the Art of Living with Mark Matousek. Do survivors of life's greatest trials possess a secret knowledge? Is there an art to survival?a map for crossing the wilderness?or daily life? Why do some people blossom through adversity while others stop growing? Drawing on twenty years' experience in this field, using stories, parable, and scientific data, acclaimed memoirist Mark Matousek gives the first-ever comprehensive look at this mysterious phenomenon of viriditas, the power of drawing passion, beauty, and wisdom from the unlikeliest places. Matousek interviews hundreds of well-known survivors?including Joan Didion, Elie Wiesel, and Isabel Allende?and experts such as Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jonathan Kozol, and Sogyal Rimpoche. He includes extraordinary testimonials, from a Tibetan nun imprisoned by the Chinese at age eleven and the women of Calama, Chile, digging for their "disappeared," among countless others. Drawing insight and advice from these many heroic individuals, Matousek presents a chorus of wisdom for how to survive our own lives?the vicissitudes of being human?and prevail. Website: https://markmatousek.com/

In which Carla learns that the most important Supreme Court case of the civil rights movement was brought about by a sixteen-year-old in her state...and an entire county in her state shut down public school rather than integrate.Marked explicit for racism and racist violence.Theme song and stinger: “Comadreamers I” by Haunted Me, off their Pleasure album, used with permissionMy history teacher, Mr. Curtis: https://www.theremightbecupcakes.com/goodbye-my-friend-for-now/Referenced episodes: 9: Family Trees: https://www.theremightbecupcakes.com/episode-9-family-trees/Sources and recommended reading:Something Needs to Be Done About Prince Edward County: A Family, A Virginia Town, and a Civil Rights Battle by Kristin Green https://bookshop.org/a/6560/9780062268686Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 by Taylor Branch https://bookshop.org/a/6560/978067168742714th Amendment: https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv, https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/fourteenth-amendment5th Amendment: https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fifth_amendmentPlessy v. Ferguson: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Plessy_v._FergusonR. R. Moton HS/Museum: https://www.nps.gov/places/virginia-robert-russa-moton-high-school.htmhttps://motonmuseum.orgReverend Vernon Johns and Reverend Martin Luther King: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/johns-vernonBarbara Rose Johns: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Rose_JohnsDavis v. County Board of Education of Prince Edward County: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis_v._County_School_Board_of_Prince_Edward_CountyBrown v. Board of Education: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_EducationSavage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools by Jonathan Kozol https://bookshop.org/a/6560/9780770435684The Stanley Plan: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_PlanThe Brown Scholarship—how to apply: http://brownscholarship.virginia.govHow to Support Cupcakes:Substack: http://theremightbecupcakes.substack.com, 75% paid subscription discount for Patreon subscribersAudible: https://www.audible.com/ep/creator?source_code=PDTGBPD060314004RCare/Of Vitamins: https://takecareof.com/invites/chr4bw and enter code CUPCAKES at checkoutPatreon: https://patreon.com/theremightbecupcakesand please visit my lovely sponsors that share their ads on my episodes.Where to Find Cupcakes:Substack: http://theremightbecupcakes.substack.comPatreon: http://patreon.com/theremightbecupcakesFacebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/theremightbecupcakesFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theremightbecupcakesTwitter: @mightbecupcakesInstagram: @theremightbecupcakes and @carlahauntedReddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/theremightbecupcakes r/theremightbecupcakesGoodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/804047-there-might-be-cupcakes-podcast-groupContact: carla@theremightbecupcakes.comComplete list of ways to listen to the podcast on the sidebar at http://theremightbecupcakes.com

Climate Changemakers is back for Season 2! And this year, hosts Damon and Kiss are reaching beyond Illinois and talking with environmental justice movement workers from across the land about what ideas guide their work, which strategies have been effective, and what advice they have for Elevate as the organization works to put people and the planet first in the fight to build equity through climate action. On the final episode of Season 2, the guys head to the Bronx to talk with Diana Hernández. A professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, Diana digs into her process of moving from advocating solutions to building deeper understanding of the problem, how her childhood in the South Bronx built her understandings of health and community, the complexities of fighting for quality housing for all, and much more. Plus, a cameo from her six month-old daughter! SHOW NOTES Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation by Jonathan Kozol - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51537.Amazing_Grace Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago by Jonathan Kozol - https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo20809880.html

Climate Changemakers is back for Season 2! And this year, hosts Damon and Kiss are reaching beyond Illinois and talking with environmental justice movement workers from across the land about what ideas guide their work, which strategies have been effective, and what advice they have for Elevate as the organization works to put people and the planet first in the fight to build equity through climate action. On the final episode of Season 2, the guys head to the Bronx to talk with Diana Hernández. A professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, Diana digs into her process of moving from advocating solutions to building deeper understanding of the problem, how her childhood in the South Bronx built her understandings of health and community, the complexities of fighting for quality housing for all, and much more. Plus, a cameo from her six month-old daughter! SHOW NOTES Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation by Jonathan Kozol - www.goodreads.com/book/show/51537.Amazing_Grace Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago by Jonathan Kozol - press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/…bo20809880.html

First broadcast on April 11, 1972. Discussing the book, "Free schools," and interviewing the author Jonathan Kozol. Jonathon Kozol also discusses education. Includes interview clip of Kermit Eby.

Stu Levitan welcomes Danielle McGuire, author of the ground-breaking and award-winning book, At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape and Resistance–a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. Danielle clicks on two criteria, as a double alum of the UW and a past presenter at the Wisconsin Book Festival. It was a little before midnight on September 3, 1944. A 25-yo black woman named Recy Taylor, and two friends were walking home from church in rural Abbeville Alabama when a carload of six white boys with guns & knives kidnapped her, blindfolded her and drove her to a wooded area outside of town, where they raped her repeatedly for more than 3 hours. Because Recy Taylor's family and friends knew local law enforcement would not take the matter seriously, they contacted the NAACP office in Montgomery, Local president E. D. Nixon assigned his best investigator, a woman who had once lived in Abbeville before commencing a career in black activism. Her name was Rosa Parks. What Rosa Parks did before and after she got to Abbeville, and the overwhelming impact of sexualized violence on the civil rights movement is the business that occupies Danielle McGuire in this important book. As it has occupied her since she got her bachelor's and master's degrees in Afro-American Studies here in the late nineties before getting her Ph D from Rutgers. Danielle McGuire is a native of Janesville Wisconsin who's been thinking and writing about the role of race in modern America since she read Jonathan Kozol's book Savage Inequalities as a high school junior in 1991. Her work has had an impact. At the Dark End of the Street won the Frederick Jackson Turner Award from the Organization of American Historians and the Lillian Smith Award from the Southern Regional Council. Her Journal of American History essay, “It was Like We Were All Raped: Sexualized Violence, Community Mobilization and the African American Freedom Struggle,” won the A. Elizabeth Taylor Prize for best essay in southern women's history and was reprinted in the Best Essays in American History. Perhaps most important, her work led to a formal apology from the State of Alabama to Recy Taylor and her family. Danielle is the editor with John Dittmer of Freedom Rights: New Perspectives on the Civil Rights Movement. She is currently at work on a book about the 1967 murder of three young black men in the Algiers Motel in Detroit which, like At The Dark End of the Street, will be published by Knopf. She lives with her husband, two children and a lhasa-poo in metro Detroit. I had the pleasure of talking with Danielle McGuire on an earlier version of this show, and it is a new pleasure to welcome her now to Madison BookBeat. Airdate - July 6, 2020

Michael Blake ~ is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party. He currently serves as both a New York Assemblyman from the 79th district and a Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee. His family emigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica seeking new opportunities, but facing many new challenges. Michael Alexander Blake was born on Christmas Day at North Central Bronx Hospital with a heart murmur. Despite his initial health challenges, the namesake of two historic Jamaican public servants, Michael Manley and Alexander Bustamante, Blake was raised in the Bronx and continues to live a life rooted in the foundation of faith, politics and putting his heart and soul into all opportunities. Michael faced challenges from the start. His New York City elementary school, P.S. 79, is featured in Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. Yet, he still rose to graduate from Northwestern University, making his story all the more remarkable. Michael Blake is the Assemblyman of the 79th District in New York State, representing parts of Concourse Village, Morrisania, Melrose, Belmont, Claremont and East Tremont. He is passionate about urban entrepreneurship, Minority- & Women-owned businesses, community learning, sustainable communities and empowering young men of color. Blake is also the Founding Principal of Atlas Strategy Group, which focuses on political and economic empowerment for communities of color. © 2020 All Rights Reserved © 2020 Building Abundant Success!! Join Me on ~ iHeart Radio @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBAS Spot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23ba

This is a big topic, and as such it makes for a longer episode. We apologize for the delay in getting it out to you and hope that you will find a lot of discussion worthy information. On The Down Lola was so excited to welcome into the studio John Mcfly, Cornelius Hocker, and Joe Lewis to break down the Black Lives Matter movement and what exactly we are fighting for. John Mcfly Is not only the partner of Lola’s good Judy Thom Foolery, he is also a brilliant, funny, and wonderful friend. He is currently finishing his studies at Ball State University in social work and psychology. He serves with the U.S. armed forces and currently works as a Mental Health Technician for Riley Hospital. John has built his life around caring for others and is a vocal advocate for the rights of people of color and the LGBTQQIP2SAA communities. He is also a big fan of Lola’s. Cornelius Hocker Is an Indianapolis based journalist who met Lola while working on a story about a favorite Indy hotspot. He is a strong advocate for black queer and trans individuals. His travels in his work as a journalist give him a well rounded perspective on many topics. Try not to be surprised if he shows up on the podcast again. Joe Lewis (Jo MaMa) is a Chicago, IL based Drag entertainer and activist. Joe was the creator of the Drag March for Change that happened in Chicago on June 14, 2020. Other than being Lola’s MCM, Joe has worked hard to connect and network with the Chicago queens of color to spread the word of inequality, and inequity of both the black queer community and the black trans community. Terms To Know Black Lives Matter – initially as a social media response to events such as George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Growth – Quickly left the internet and became a “real world” movement. Intersectionality – Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in 1989 To describe that as humans, we are each more than one thing. For example: a black man experiences oppression for being black, but a gay black trans woman experiences a multi-layered oppression stemming from her gayness, her blackness, and her femininity. Identity politics is a political process that brings people together based on a shared aspect of their identity. History of Black Oppression (Outside of Law Enforcement) Center for American Progress Wealth Gap In 2007, immediately before the Great Recession, wealth among people of color was 14% that of whites. Currently African Americans on average own a disproportionate, 1/10 of the wealth of white Americans. Poverty has many natural consequences (Other than being poor). People of color are more likely to experience negative income shocks but are less likely to have access to emergency savings. As a consequence, they are more likely to fall behind on their bills and go into debt during times of emergency The wealth gap persists regardless of households’ education, marital status, age, or income. For instance, the median wealth for black households with a college degree equaled about 70 percent of the median wealth for white households without a college degree. Black households have more costly debt. In 2016, blacks with debt typically owed $35,560—less than 40 percent of the $93,000 in debt owed by whites. However, because blacks owed larger amounts of high-interest debt—such as installment credit and student and car loans—the debt they typically owed was more expensive.   Education (Brookings Institute) Americans often forget that as late as the 1960s most African-American, Latino, and Native American students were educated in wholly segregated schools funded at rates many times lower than those serving whites and were excluded from many higher education institutions entirely. The end of legal segregation followed by efforts to equalize spending since 1970 has made a substantial difference for student achievement. On every major national test, including the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the gap in minority and white students’ test scores narrowed substantially between 1970 and 1990, especially for elementary school students. Jonathan Kozol s 1991 Savage Inequalities described the striking differences between public schools serving students of color in urban settings and their suburban counterparts, which typically spend twice as much per student for populations with many fewer special needs. Contrast MacKenzie High School in Detroit, where word processing courses are taught without word processors because the school cannot afford them, or East St. Louis Senior High School, whose biology lab has no laboratory tables or usable dissecting kits, with nearby suburban schools where children enjoy a computer hookup to Dow Jones to study stock transactions and science laboratories that rival those in some industries. Or contrast Paterson, New Jersey, which could not afford the qualified teachers needed to offer foreign language courses to most high school students, with Princeton, where foreign languages begin in elementary school. Even within urban school districts, schools with high concentrations of low-income and minority students receive fewer instructional resources than others. Housing the federal government established several programs in the 20th century that were designed to promote homeownership and provide a pathway to the middle class.37 However, these programs largely benefited white households while excluding Black families. In 1933 and 1934, in the midst of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Homeowners’ Loan Act and the National Housing Act into law to prevent foreclosures and make rental housing and homeownership more affordable. To carry out these missions, the newly minted Homeowners Loan Corporation (HOLC) created maps to assess the risk of mortgage refinancing and set new standards for federal underwriting. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) used these maps to determine the areas in which it would guarantee mortgages. But HOLC maps assessed risk in part based on a neighborhood’s racial composition, designating predominantly nonwhite neighborhoods as hazardous, and coloring these areas red. This process, known as redlining, denied people of color—especially Black people—access to mortgage refinancing and federal underwriting opportunities while perpetuating the notion that residents of color were financially risky and a threat to local property values. As a result, just 2 percent of the $120 billion in FHA loans distributed between 1934 and 1962 were given to nonwhite families Today, approximately 3 in 4 neighborhoods—74 percent—that the HOLC deemed “hazardous” in the 1930s remain low to moderate income, and more than 60 percent are predominantly nonwhite In 1944, President Roosevelt signed into law the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act—commonly referred to as the GI Bill—which provided a range of benefits, such as guaranteed mortgages, to veterans of World War II. However, according to historian Ira Katznelson, “the law was deliberately designed to accommodate Jim Crow.” For instance, the GI Bill allowed local banks to discriminate against Black veterans and deny them home loans even though the federal government would guarantee their mortgages. Employment Both the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco reports suggest that the unobserved or unexplained factors that play a role in the black-white income and employment gap include: employment discrimination, weak enforcement of anti-discrimination laws, or racial differences in unobserved skill levels as opposed to measurable factors such as educational attainment or work experience. It is likely that disparities in employment may actually be underestimated because they do not account for the large number of blacks who have been negatively impacted by a criminal justice system that has aggressively and persistently targeted communities of color Police Brutality of People of Color US National Library of Medicine/National Institute of Health US White (non-Hispanic) Population (60.4%) Fatal interaction with LE (52%) US Black Population (13.4%) Fatal interaction with LE (32%) with a fatality rate 2.8 times higher among blacks than whites. Most victims were reported to be armed (83%) black victims were more likely to be unarmed (14.8%) than white (9.4%) Hispanic (5.8%) Four case subtypes were examined based on themes that emerged in incident narratives: 22% of cases were mental health related 18% were suspected “suicide by cop” incidents, with white victims more likely than black or Hispanic victims to die in these circumstances 14% involved intimate partner violence 6% were unintentional deaths due to LE action. Another 53% of cases were unclassified and did not fall into a coded subtype.   White (Non-Hispanic) Black Hispanic/Latinx Native American Asian Population 328.2 million (2019) 186,482,305 41,371,902 56,500,433 4,013,692 18,215,987 LE Death (etimated 7,663 total: 2013-2019 3,378 1,944 1335 112 118 Population information estimates from US Census Bureau LE related fatalities info from https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/  Resources FBI: Use of force database – https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ucr/use-of-force Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the USA – https://www.pnas.org/content/116/34/16793 US National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6080222/ United States Census Bureau – https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219 https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/ Center for American Progress – https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2018/02/21/447051/systematic-inequality/ https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2019/08/07/472617/systemic-inequality-displacement-exclusion-segregation/ Brookings Institute – https://www.brookings.edu/articles/unequal-opportunity-race-and-education/ Sharing is caring

From 2008 comes this interview with Jonathan Kozol, author of "Letters to a Young Teacher," which offers some illuminating and inspiring observations on what it means to be a good teacher - and what a deeply gratifying profession it can be. This book is part of a series of books inspired by Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet from early in the 20th century. (Other books include Letters to a Young Doctor .... to a Young Activist ... and many more.)

The United States grounds an aircraft built by a major defense contractor, California's governor shuts down death row, The college admissions scam, is the system fixed? We speak with Defense analyst Bill Hartung, former judge and death penalty attorney Bill Blum and iconic education activist Jonathan Kozol. Featuring co-anchor Heather Chin.

For the past few posts, our focus has been on the southern border with Mexico. You may think that the kerfuffle is all about border security, but that interpretation doesn't hold up very well. Both President Trump and the opposition publicly agree that enhanced border security is important and would be a worthy outcome. So, what is the issue? Is it the cost? Probably not. Both sides agree that appropriating funds for enhanced border security is necessary. Yes, they are apart on how much funding, but the difference is only thirty seconds or so of the total cost of operating the Federal government. That doesn't seem like enough difference to justify major disruption in the lives of nearly a million Federal workers and related non-government employment, along with the disruption in government services and responsibilities. The negative effect of the stalemate is just too far out of proportion to the funding gap. In months past, President Trump proclaimed that the cost was neither an issue nor going to be an issue. Mexico would be paying for the needed enhanced security. Now, that pipedream has faded, and both sides agree that it will be paid for by our Federal government. Even so, the cost is not the cause of the kerfuffle. Both sides appear to be digging in over a wall versus no wall. It also seems unlikely that this is at the heart of the impasse. The two-thousand-mile border, (the distance from Chicago to Los Angeles,) likely needs a wall or at least a better fence along some stretches but building a wall that stretches uninterrupted from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico is likely not even possible. At least part of it would need to be secured with electronic detection and drones. Even were it possible, building the wall would probably take many years. It would not enhance security much for quite some time. President Trump is saying that he will close the border with Mexico if he doesn't get funding for his wall. It's not at all clear what that would accomplish. It would prevent legal entry across that border but wouldn't do much to stop illegal entry. Whatever the current security risk is that requires enhanced security would not be appreciably reduced by closing the border. It would definitely harm the law-abiding adults and children who hope to enter the United States but would do little to stop the illegal influx of criminals and hooligans. Perhaps most people think the politicians should sit down together and work out a deal. There is probably a reasonable compromise in there somewhere between all wall and no wall. There is likely a solution that is both practical and possible. The political bridge burning is a serious escalation of the King-of-the-Hill game the politicians are playing with the lives and futures of far too many innocent people on both sides of the border. There is some advice about bridge burning that both President Trump and the opposition would do well to seriously take to heart. Jonathan Kozol advised, "Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win." In the realm of life's little lessons, this seems axiomatic. The problem is that many of the battles that are big enough to matter aren't small enough to win; and those that are small enough to win tend not to matter. The challenge is in knowing when to fight and when to walk away. Kozol's advice is to fight if the outcome matters and you can win, otherwise walk away. Although this is certainly a practical approach to self-preservation, it's also a clear cop out. There are battles that matter way too much to avoid, even though winning is far from certain. The more important lesson may be in David Russell's observation, "The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn." Life is full of conflicts and tensions, battles large and small, bridges to cross and bridges to burn. Life is a journey; and usually, when it isn't working out, you can change direction, back up and start again,

On the latest episode of EdTalk, host Alex Granados talks with Rep. Craig Horn, R-Union, about the book "Death at an Early Age: The Classic Indictment of Inner-City Education," by Jonathan Kozol.

This week we look at a story that calls into question just how successful the Civil Rights Movement really was. It’s the iconic story of the Little Rock Nine, the courageous African American students who began the process of desegregating Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. They faced a hostile state governor, Orville Faubus, who called out the state’s National Guard to prevent the federally-mandated desegregation order. Then, after the Eisenhower administration sent in troops from the 101st Airborne to take control of the situation and enforce the order, the students were confronted by raging mobs calling out racial slurs and threatening violence. And all of this was captured on camera. We’ve all seen the images. But there’s a lot more to the story of Little Rock in 1957 and that’s our focus today. This topic is important because racial segregation in the nation’s public schools is still a huge problem – and it’s getting worse. And the problem isn’t just segregation, because data shows that segregated schools offer fewer college prep courses, and fewer courses and programs in the arts, compared to white majority schools. Segregated schools also have lower graduation rates and higher rates of suspensions and expulsions for discipline problems. In other words, students in these schools in 2017 are being offered an education that is, separate and unequal. How is this possible? How did we get here? Well, part of the reason is that many Americans – remembering uplifting moments like the Little Rock Nine desegregating Central High School 60 years ago this month – believe the problem of segregation in public schools was solved decades ago. It’s in the past. It turns out, that happy memory of a Civil Rights victory in 1957 is actually one of the things that stands in the way of our confronting and resolving the scourge of segregation. To help us understand the long and complicated history of Little Rock and desegregation efforts, I speak with historian Erin Krutko Devlin, author of the new book, Remember Little Rock (Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 2017). Among the many things discussed in this episode:  How the Little Rock crisis of 1957 is part of a problematic triumphant narrative of racial progress. Why celebrating iconic civil rights victories can bolster a misperception that racism is a thing of the past. Why 60 years after Little Rock, many public schools in the US remain segregated and unequal. How opponents of integration in Little Rock and elsewhere turned from Massive Resistance to Passive Resistance to stymie desegregation efforts. How public officials in Little Rock, Arkansas successfully conspired to thwart meaningful school integration after 1957. How conservative judges after 1980 began to roll back desegregation programs imposed by lower courts. What Little Rock in 1957 can tell us about Charlottesville in 2017. Little Rock and the emergence of Civil Rights tourism. How Little Rock and the National Park Service site and museum commemorate the #PublicHistory of the Civil Rights movement. About Erin Krutko Devlin – website Further Reading Erin Krutko Devlin, Remember Little Rock (University of Massachusetts Press, 2017) Karen Anderson, Little Rock: Race and Resistance at Central High School (2010) Derrick Bell, Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform (2004) Elizabeth Huckaby, Crisis at Central High, Little Rock, 1957-58 (1980) Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools (2012) Jonathan Kozol, The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America (2005). Carlotta Walls Lanier, A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School (2010). Greg Toppo, “GAO study: Segregation worsening in U.S. schools,” USA Today, May 17, 2016 Music for This Episode Jay Graham, ITPL Intro (JayGMusic.com) Kevin McCleod, “Impact Moderato” (Free Music Archive) Jason Shaw, “Acoustic Meditation” Hefferman, “Winter’s Trek” (Free Music Archive) The Bell, “I Am History” (Free Music Archive) Production Credits Executive Producer: Lulu Spencer Technical Advisors: Holly Hunt and Jesse Anderson Podcasting Consultant: Darrell Darnell of Pro Podcast Solutions Photographer: John Buckingham Graphic Designer: Maggie Cellucci Website by: ERI Design Legal services: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too Social Media management: The Pony Express Risk Assessment: Little Big Horn Associates Growth strategies: 54 40 or Fight © Snoring Beagle International, 2017  

Few education writers (with the possible exception of Jonathan Kozol) are more widely respected and more widely read than Mike Rose. In a career that’s spanned more than 35 years, Rose has produced eleven books on education and learning, ranging in topic from effective literacy strategies to the cognitive complexity of blue-collar work. His most well-known book may be the semi-autobiographical Lives On the Boundary. It’s now generally considered a classic of the field, often read in education schools and teacher-prep programs. The book details different ways to reach so-called “problem” students, while at the same time mining the deep vein of Rose’s own personal experiences growing up in a working class household that often felt shut out of the educational establishment. Mike Rose was born in Pennsylvania, the son of Italian immigrants and grew up in Los Angeles. He’s said one of the most impactful things to happen to him growing up was being moved out of his high school’s vocational track into its college prep track. In the college prep track, he had a teacher who advised him on applying to college. Rose, who now teaches at UCLA, has tended to focus his writing on class divisions he experienced as a student and that still often plague our education system. He’s written passionately about vocational education--what’s now termed Career and Technical Education--and how it can and should be integrated into a more well-rounded education that also includes STEM learning and instruction in subjects like classic literature. He says votech subjects like auto mechanics and shop class are often looked at with snobbery and elitism and are undervalued by the education system as a whole. Rose has been revisiting these themes on his blog in the wake of the election of Donald Trump as president. He’s not a fan of the president. He makes no bones about his disappointment in Trump’s election, swept to the White House with the support of millions of white, working class voters like people he says he grew up around. We wanted to speak to Rose about how his career’s focus--his lifelong passion for looking at issues of class in education--now may seem more relevant than ever.

Never miss another episode of Where Genius Grows. Get each new one delivered straight to your inbox by signing up here: http://eepurl.com/ckKJ1f * At the beginning of 2017 there are over 500,000 unfilled tech jobs in the United States. How will applicants learn the required skills to succeed in these jobs? How will employers avoid overlooking qualified candidates? How will applicants from underserved communities gain access to the training they need to compete for these jobs? * Tess Posner (@tessposner) is the managing director of TechHire, an initiative by Opportunity@Work to connect 100,000 people to tech jobs by 2020. In this interview she describes the steps TechHire is taking to accomplish this feat and how you can participate. Tess also offers her vision of a well-rounded 21st-century education, balancing ever-evolving technical expertise against an understanding of what it means to be human. * Further readings Tess recommends include: * - "The World is Open" by Curtis Bonk: http://amzn.to/2iLmrI8 * - "The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies" by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee: http://amzn.to/2iIK8Ty * - "Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future" by Martin Ford: http://amzn.to/2iLkSdt * - "Savage Inequalities" by Jonathan Kozol: http://amzn.to/2iXJ8J3 * - "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky: http://amzn.to/2iK3F3S * - "The Apology" by Plato: http://amzn.to/2iK7lCM * - "The Republic" by Plato: http://amzn.to/2iK1PQC * - "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith: http://amzn.to/2hWS2Vf * - "The Federalist Papers" by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay: http://amzn.to/2j9YDgj

Norm and I discuss racial equity, allostatic load, shut it down project, developmental criminology, resource quilt, Jonathan Kozol and how dividing the pie is not always the right decision.

Jonathan Kozol has devoted nearly 25 years to issues of education and social justice. His book Death at an Early Age described his first year as a teacher in the Boston public schools and received the National Book Award in 1986. He later focused on adult literacy, and his subsequent book, Illiterate America, looked at the consequences of having nearly a quarter of the U. S. population unable to read. His most recent work, Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America, portrays the daily struggle of families living in New York City's welfare shelters.

During this special edition of Alzheimer’s Talks presented by UsAgainstAlzheimer's, award-winning author Jonathan Kozol shared his experiences caring for his father and discussed his new book, The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father, One Day at a Time. Some people say once a person has Alzheimer’s, he or she becomes a stranger, losing the pieces of his or her personality we knew and loved before. But when Dr. Harry Kozol, a respected psychiatrist and neurologist, was diagnosed, his son Jonathan Kozol was struck by his father’s resilience and learned to connect with him during the various stages of decline.Support the show (https://www.usagainstalzheimers.org/ways-donate)

Tim Averill HS English Teacher (Waring School, MA), AP Community Moderator, St. Johnsbury Summer Academy Facilitator   January Contest: Win a Copy of Carol Jago's With Rigor for All by emailing me a lesson that worked (email)    Segment I – Background and Inspiration Tell your story. Where are you from and how long have you been teaching? What classes have you taught?  – Tim has taught for 44 years at Manchester Essex RHS and, most recently, The Waring School. He grew up in Topeka, KS went to Kansas University, where he obtained a French and English degree, and then Harvard for graduate school. He worked at Manchester from 1971-2005, where he also coached Debate.  The Waring School is a bi-lingual school where all students learn French and travel to France.  Who has helped you in your journey to become a master teacher? – He believes that example is a great teacher because he had great professors at Kansas University who inspired him. While in Springfield, Harvard had assigned him a master teacher to work with him and that was of great benefit. At Manchester, a couple of colleagues took him under their wing and helped him develop as a teacher. A supportive spouse is also helpful to be there for you when you have good days and bad days.  It is important for other teachers to know that we all have had setbacks in the classroom. Identify an instance in which you struggled as a teacher and explain what you learned from that experience. – Tim has had plenty of examples where he thought something would go well and it didn't. While in Springfield, some kids from another school came over unannounced to visit. Tim relied on his students to tell them that they were not welcome and his students did not side with him. It was an unsetting for him, yet his colleagues reminded him that his students are not going to side with a rookie teacher when there are friends are around. He reminded us that when a lesson goes wrong, we often have the tendency to believe that the failure is a reflection on us,  when it can be a reflection of the material.  Why teach English and the Language Arts? – It is a way for students to know themselves. The purpose of education is for students to get to know themselves, yet Tim believes we are far too career-oriented in education right now.  Too frequently we are teaching them that their value in society is based on what they can produce and consume.   What is one thing that you love about the classroom?  – Taking students to debate and seeing their joy of discovery when they feel empowered. His job as a teacher is to be less and less important as the year goes on because they've gained the confidence to think independently.  Segment II — Digging into the Teacher Bag of Goodies    What book do you recommend to a developing teacher? -- This may date him as a teacher but Death at Early Age by Jonathan Kozol and Teaching as a Subversive Activity by Neil Postman.  What is one thing a teacher can do outside the classroom that can pay off inside the classroom?  – Participate as much as possible in the culture of the kids. Be at the basketball games, chaperone the dances, volunteer for after-school activities.     Is there an internet resource that you can recommend which will help teachers grow professionally? – The AP Community. It has 8,775 members. Every teacher can join the community. What can a teacher can do to make students better writers?  – Have students publish their work. Publishing can be as simple as having them read it aloud or enter it into a contest but it makes an assignment exist beyond the teacher and beyond a grade.  Update the cannon. What new work should be included in the school curriculum? --  A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving is a novel that he was overjoyed to see on recent AP exams.

Weekly JourneywithJesus.net postings, read by Daniel B. Clendenin. Essay: *"It's a Gift:" One Body, Many Parts* for Sunday, 20 January 2013; book review: *Fire in the Ashes; Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America* by Jonathan Kozol (2012); film review: *Life of Pi* (2012); poem review: *The Father* by Joshua Sylvester.

The next time I hear a politician promise to do something 'for the children', I may heave. If one thing is clear in this nation, it is that children are hated. Oh -- we don't use that word to describe our relationships with them, but if we honestly examine those interactions we find that it would be difficult to describe in ways other than 'hate.' For the last several months, I've been reading, studying and thinking about the nation's public school system. I've read classics in the field, like Jonathan Kozol's 1967 work, Death At An Early Age, a stunning account on his years as a permanent sub [!] in Boston's Black populated schools in Roxbury, where kids were taken down into dark, dank cellars and beaten with rattan sticks. But what happened in the dark basements of the buildings, while certainly dramatic and deplorable, could hardly be worse than the systematic slaughter of the minds of tens of thousands of children, who were, in Kozol's words, "intellectually decapitated" daily by a racist, segregated school system. Truth is, any major U.S. city could've been used with similar results - Harlem, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, for nationally, the drop-out rate is 50%. Public schools are places where kids go to get their minds and souls killed. And what is war but old men sacrificing young men in often meaningless battles? What is the so-called 'War on Terror' but a mindless slogan used to sell lies like 'Weapons of Mass Destruction?' And what are soldiers but mostly children, molded into madmen, who fight and die, so that old rich men can get richer? Daily, we drug millions of schoolchildren, some as young as 4 years old with Ritalin, because we describe them as hyperactive or deficient in attention --which means they don't sit still, while we bore them out of their brains, with what we laughingly call an education. 'For the children' we leave a diseased and poisoned planet, an economy on crutches, and a world boiling with hatred for their fathers. Isn't it about time we really stopped doing more damage to the children? 9/19/09 (c) Mumia Abu-Jamal

The Marx Lecture, inner-city schools, urban education, school segregation

Educator and writer Jonathan Kozol addressed a standing-room-only crowd as part of the Bearing Witness series, lamenting the desperate situation in our nation's public school system. He spoke on his latest book, Letters to a Young Teacher, about his relationship with a young first-grade teacher in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and her students.

Educator and writer Jonathan Kozol addressed a standing-room-only crowd as part of the Bearing Witness series, lamenting the desperate situation in our nation's public school system. He spoke on his latest book, Letters to a Young Teacher, about his relationship with a young first-grade teacher in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and her students.