In 1964, Mr. Kozol began teaching 4th grade in one of Boston’s most overcrowded elementary schools. During that year he witnessed how they routinely beat unruly children, and referred to them as “niggers” and “animals”. Kozol noticed that some of the children felt so ignored and isolated that they sometimes invited the beatings, preferring the abuse to neglect.

The book shows how the Negro schools received less funding than the white schools (275 dollars per each child in the white schools vs. 213 dollars per child in the black schools). (pg.53) This presents a problem for Negro schools because they didn’t have the money for the necessary repairs that they needed to be done in the schools. Also, there wasn’t enough money for new supplies and books. Even though the school was close

The poem by Langston Hughes Ballad of the Landlord was the poem that was involved when the decided that was the final straw, and that they needed to get rid of Mr. Kozol. After I read the poem, I can understand why they would have wanted to get rid of him back then. It seems to me like the man in the poem is black and the land lord is white. It’s like the black man is standing up for himself and challenging the white landlord. I think the school was afraid that Mr. Kozol would have the children standing up for themselves and rebelling against them.

It was made clear by one of the Boston school Committee members, Joseph Lee, during his speech in 1965 that “white parents prefer schools predominately white for their children”. (pg.214) he also talked about the Open Enrollment Policy, which mostly only the white children have taken advantage of. But the Open Enrollment Policy is of no help to the black children because how would they be able to get to other schools. The parents barely have enough money to clothe and fee their children. Where would they get the extra money for transportation?

Maybe this wouldn’t sound that bad id it weren’t in comparison to how they describe the Swiss children in the European section. It says that the Swiss children are handsome, with blue eyes, hair that is golden yellow, white skin that is clear, and cheeks as red as ripe, red apples. Kozol questioned why they were still using this type of book in a predominately African American school. (This was a book that was given to Mr. Kozol from the reading teacher, which she said she used that book for many

Some topics in this essay:
African American, Death Age, Board Education, Ballad Landlord, Enrollment Policy, , Jonathan Kozol, Joseph Lee, Linda Brown, Jonathan Kozol’s, public schools, boston public schools, enrollment policy, white schools, parents barely, book kozol, dollars child, negro schools, kozol teaching, teaching stop, swiss children,