Reddit reviews The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America

Wow, I don’t even know where to start, but I will try to be brief and maybe add more later.

First and foremost, the ways in which resources- material and human- are distributed in the U.S. are woefully inequitable and unacceptable. I believe that all students should have opportunities to engage in intellectually demanding curricula and that this curricula should reflect and build on their life experiences. While I do believe a valid role in public education is “preparing our children to compete in the global economy” (www.barackobama.com/), I think that the most important responsibilities of the education system to sustain a democratic society and to support students’ critical literacy. By critical literacy, I mean students should be able to read, write, and do arithmetic, but also be able to use these skills to understand the world, in terms of social, political, cultural issues.

I was optimistic about Obama when he took office. There were rumors he was going to pick a distinguished educator/professor who is internationally known in the field of education. So I was dismayed that Obama named a non-education person for the Secretary of Education. While I appreciate and value outsider perspectives, to me Duncan just seemed like another neo-liberal business person who really didn’t understand schools or school (due to his past performance as head of CPS and his rhetoric). His record of closing neighborhood schools and privatizing public schools in Chicago was devastating. His misguided notions of merit pay were embarrassing, given the decades of educational and sociological research on the topic. Just to name a few! (From a common sense standpoint, why would “good” teachers want to teach in underperforming schools? Why would teachers in underperforming schools teach anything other than the low-level skills required on the test?)

To me, very little seems different than the Bush years in terms of action/rhetoric. I wish that the DOE spent more time listening to and collaborating with real teachers and education researchers that have more than enough accounts and research to lead the way to a more progressive, equitable, and socially just educational system...really take the notion of educating our citizens [in the public school system].

An Open Letter to Arne Duncan by Sen. (and former teacher) Herb Kohl is an excellent example of the kind of issues and hope I have for the future.
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/23_04/good234.shtml

Jonathan Kozol’s The Shame of the Nation is also an excellent, albeit depressing book about schooling in the U.S.
http://www.amazon.com/Shame-Nation-Restoration-Apartheid-Schooling/dp/1400052440 - http://www.amazon.com/Shame-Nation-Restoration-Apartheid-Schooling/dp/1400052440

The return of segregation has been going on for a while. Jonathan Kozol wrote about in his 2005 book, The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. I'm glad to see the NAACP taking a more aggressive stand on the issue.