Northern Cities, Practice What You Preach

One of the best descriptions of anything I've ever read: 
"Childhood is...a perishable piece of life"
The entire paragraph:
"Admittedly, the economic needs of a society are bound to be reflected to some rational degree within the policies and purposes of public schools.  But, even so, there must something more to life as it is lived by six-year-olds, or by teenagers, for that matter, than concerns about 'successful global competition'.  Childhood is not merely basic training for utilitarian adulthood.  It should have some claims upon our mercy, not for its future value to the economic interests of competitive societies but for its present value as a perishable piece of life itself."  (Kozol page 19) 
Kozol reveals the sad state of the physical conditions of inner city public schools.  Coupled with disproportionate government spending and "Success For All" (or similar) scripted systems, many schools have taken backward steps toward resegration. 
Kozol writes powerfully, "There is no misery index for the children of apartheid education." (Kozol page 16)
The end result is that white students have run to the hills, heading off to better schools outside their neighborhood or to private schools, leaving the inner city schools racially isolated.  
Kozol is good writer and does well to illustrate the savage inequalities that exist in the schools he has visited with primary sources that tug on heartstrings.  I can imagine the students he interviewed don't have the greatest life outside of school, and first and foremost, the schools need to meet the basic needs of students.  They don't.  So not only are students exposed to a learning environment that operates like a factory, they can't comfortably eat in the cafeteria, or use the bathroom, or exercise during recess.  Even my pet tarantula at least receives benign neglect.  This is just pure neglect. 
Bartolome would clearly be opposed to these deplorable conditions and the rigidity and military-like implementation of the scripted curriculum.  Talk about power in the classroom. 
What was most troubling to me were the thoughts I had after reading the paragraph on page 8 regarding teacher salaries.  I can only surmise that less is spent on teacher salaries, because teachers don't stay at the inner city schools for very long.  There must be a huge amount of turnover, because any good teacher most certainly would realize that trying to teach there is futile.  New teachers are shuttled in and paid new teacher salaries, while teachers in suburban areas make more and more money because they remain at their cushy jobs much longer.  This fact must skew the numbers. But I asked myself,"would I give up my cushy job at a predominantly white, upper/middle class suburban school and take a shot at teaching at an inner city school in Detroit?  St. Louis or L.A.? Milwaukee? South Bronx?"   With sadness and embarrassment...no chance.
"A Tale of Two Schools"

GK