No Child Left Behind's fourth-grade gains aren't learning gains, they're testing gains. That's why they don't last. The law is a distraction… — Jonathan Kozol Copy Share Image
At present, black children are more segregated in their public schools than at any time since 1968. In the inner-city schools I… — Jonathan Kozol Copy Share Image
The greatest difference between now and 1964, when I began teaching, is that public policy has pretty much eradicated the dream of… — Jonathan Kozol Differences Copy Share Image
People rarely speak of children; you hear of 'cohort groups' and 'standard variations,' but you don't hear much of boys who miss… — Jonathan Kozol Copy Share Image
East St. Louis-which the local press refers to as "an inner city without an outer city"-has some of the sickest children in… — Jonathan Kozol America Copy Share Image
What I tell these young people is, the world is not as dangerous as the older generation would like you to believe.… — Jonathan Kozol Copy Share Image
I have always felt my role was to do anything I could to enable the powerless to speak. I want America to… — Jonathan Kozol Copy Share Image
Children are not simply commodities to be herded into line and trained for the jobs that white people who live in segregated… — Jonathan Kozol Copy Share Image
'Amazing Grace' is not a book of interviews or onetime snapshots. It's a memoir of a journey that took me into a… — Jonathan Kozol Amazing Copy Share Image
Children, of course, don't understand at first that they are being cheated. They come to school with a degree of faith and… — Jonathan Kozol Copy Share Image
“A caste society,” wrote U.S. Commissioner of Education Francis Keppel 25 years ago, “violates the style of American democracy.… The nation in… — Jonathan Kozol American democracy Copy Share Image
More money is put into prisons than into schools. That, in itself, is the description of a nation bent on suicide. I… — Jonathan Kozol Copy Share Image
There is something deeply hypocritical in a society that holds an inner-city child only eight years old "accountable" for her performance on… — Jonathan Kozol Children Copy Share Image
I write books to change the world. Perhaps I can only change one little piece of that world. But if I can… — Jonathan Kozol Book Copy Share Image
“Many suburban legislators representing affluent school districts use terms such as "sinkhole" when opposing funding for Chicago's children. "We can't keep throwing… — Jonathan Kozol Black hole Copy Share Image
“Evil exists," he says, not flinching at the word. "I believe that what the rich have done to the poor people in… — Jonathan Kozol Evil Copy Share Image
As a matter of record, New York City spends a higher portion of its budget on instruction and associated costs within the… — Jonathan Kozol Cities Copy Share Image
I don't know if anything I write will endure, but I do try to write it as a narrative that will not… — Jonathan Kozol Copy Share Image
We know that segregation is evil. We know that the sickest children should not go to the worst hospitals. No, I refuse… — Jonathan Kozol Children Copy Share Image
You have to remember. . .that for this little boy whom you have met, his life is just as important to him,… — Jonathan Kozol Boys Copy Share Image
The ones I pity are the ones who never stick out their neck for something they believe, never know the taste of… — Jonathan Kozol Adventure Copy Share Image
If there are amazing graces on this earth, I believe that they are these good children sent to us by God and… — Jonathan Kozol Amazing grace Copy Share Image
We continue, however, to write about important people, prize-winning people, blacks of grandeur, women of great fire, fame or wit. We do… — Jonathan Kozol Educational Copy Share Image
'Death at an Early Age' was about racial segregation in Boston. 'Illiterate America' was about grownups who can't read. 'Rachel and Her… — Jonathan Kozol Copy Share Image
Even if you never do anything about this, you've benefited from an unjust system. You're already the winner in a game that… — Jonathan Kozol Advantage Copy Share Image
Now, I don't expect what I write to change things. I think I write now simply as a witness. This is how… — Jonathan Kozol Change Copy Share Image
On Mondays and Fridays in early May, nearly 18,000 children-the equivalent of all the elementary students in suburban Glencoe, Wilmette, Glenview, Kenilworth,… — Jonathan Kozol Children Copy Share Image
A culture in which guilt is automatically assumed to be neurotic and unhealthy has devised a remarkably clever way of protecting its… — Jonathan Kozol Clever Copy Share Image
I tell young teachers who are determined to dissent from some of the Draconian aspects of the current orthodoxy that the best… — Jonathan Kozol Copy Share Image
But when I went to Harvard, it kind of got washed out of me, partly because people made fun of you in… — Jonathan Kozol College Copy Share Image
I'd love to go back and teach primary school. I used to teach fourth grade and fifth grade. I'd love to spend… — Jonathan Kozol Education Copy Share Image
