criminology book review (Book Review Sample)

Book review on the Shame of the Nation by Jonathan Kozol Name Institution Course Introduction The trigger that gave Jonathan Kozol the interest to be a teacher was when he witnessed the killing of three civil activists when he was an intern teacher in Mississippi in 1964. The incident also made him become an activist for the minority group and the children in the segregated schools when he was a teacher at one of the segregated schools in Boston. In his book Shame of the Nation, he points out the segregation that is going on in the public schools as well as the inequality the still exists in the schools as well as in the neighborhood and will continue to haunt the nation up to this day. Jonathan Kozol visited more than 60 schools as he prepared to write his book, he found out that the situation had become worse as the white parents continued to send their children in more exclusive schools while the black children filled the halls of public schools. He further lays down his complaint at how there is no change in the situation and the media is not keen on addressing the issue. He also says that there not equality on the way the funds are being provided to the schools by the government as the suburban schools are more than the public schools where most of the black and Hispanic children attend. Chapter One: Segregation in Schools The segregation in schools is still a common trait today in very many schools. It is a sad situation when you visit the public schools that bear the name of the historical leaders like Martin Luther King and Thurgood Marshall and find that they only have black and Hispanic students with small numbers or no white students present. According to the author, he visited schools in the 11 states, but the situation is still the same and has also continued to worsen. Even after 15 years from when the courts removed the ruling of the Brown vs. the board of education there have been decreases in the number of the white families that are attending public schools even the ones that are in the more racially mixed areas, but they instead go the predominantly white schools. Is the dream of Martin Luther King still alive to see brothers of different colors sit at one table? In the book, the author further shows the irony of the schools with the big names of a historical figure is the ones that have the highest level of segregation. The situation is evident in Thurgood Marshall Elementary School which is located in Seattle where most of the population is Caucasian, 95 percent of the students in the school are black, Hispanic or from the Native American origin. On the posters on the hallways of the school, it says the dream is alive but is the lawyers dream alive in this century. The same is in Detroit where the black and Hispanic students take 95% of the school. It is 87% of the students that are black or Hispanic in Chicago, while Washington and New York is 94% and 75% respectively. In Boston, there is a school named after Langston Hughe and the highest percentage of the schools is of the black students and the Hispanic children. The principals of the schools go along with this trend as there superiors instruct them but it is clear that the schools only have the children of color and from the low-income families. In the visits that were made by Jonathan Kozol to the Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, he found the words of Marshall on the hallway but not the struggles he went through to help stop racial segregation in the schools and the community. In his visit to the schools, he found out that the students of the schools named after Thurgood Marshall did not know who he was. The older teachers in the schools that get the segregated have to understand the struggles of justice Marshall and have also seen them in its reverse form. It is always that some of the most segregated schools in the United States are those with the names of Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks where they have the highest percentage of black students and Hispanic students. A well knows schools in New York city named after Martin Luther King has the highest number of students being black despite its location being in the upper-middle-class area. There was hope of the schools accommodating both the races but still the parents took their kids to the white private schools and the schools remained to be the place that admits black or Hispanic students who could not get seats in more successful schools. The school had Ronald Wells as the principal in 2000, he was a religious man as well as committed to his work and was the first black principal in a high school in Manhattan. The words of Martin Luther King, I have a dream displayed on the walls but is the dream still on when today the school has 54 percent as black students, and 42 percent as Hispanic students and only 3.8 percent of the 2600 students are either white, Asian or other. According to the principal, the schools used to have more Vietnamese, polish as well as Russian immigrants as students. There were also the Dominicans from Washington Heights a neighboring town full of segregated schools to attend another segregated school, but now they are all gone. In the book, the author sees this as a common trend that has happened to many of the schools in the US. In schools like Martin Luther King High where there is a high level of student segregation, there are a lot of unhappy faces, the atmosphere is tense, and the students are disorderly. When an instance of violence occurs in the schools, it makes the parents of white children even more inclined to avoid the schools. The schools have had some disorder associated with it, in January 2002 some of the students were involved in a shooting in the hallway of the school on the day of Martin Luther King's anniversary. The timing was perfect, and it went against the legacy of Dr. King of being a man of peace. The press talked about his peace legacy, but not enough emphasis was on the level of segregation present in the school. The writer goes ahead to include that the media went ahead to look for ways that can be used to stop violence in the schools but the methods that can be used to reduce the level of segregation in the school. There were views from all over, and an advocate that advocated for small schools suggested that in large schools it was not easy for the teachers to communicate with the students and therefore to make it hard to reach them and also impossible to find the weapons. The architecture of the school was also in question as the many hallways and hideouts that could have led to the growth of bad behaviors and for people to come into the school. The problem with the buildings led to having a smaller segregated school which has few doors and hallways which created a possible solution to violence, but there was no solution to the rising level of segregation present in the schools as the students felt that they were not needed and created scenes just to be recognized by the outside world. The Center School in Seattle which offers the small school initiative attracted 83% of the whites and 6% of the black students (Kozol, 2005, p. 277). The same comes in contrast to the other African/American school on the other side of town that has 93% blacks and 3% white students. In all the years of scenes like this, are left out as well as the facts from social scientists who have managed to examine the emotional and psychological effects that may come from segregated schooling that are left out over the years. Some of the causes that are sometimes rarely considered is racial discrimination and the rate of poverty that makes the students unleash their anguish. The author goes on the talk to Isabel who is a 15-year-old girl in Harlem who feels like they are hidden, this is her thoughts as she tried to explain racial discrimination in the schools is also in the neighborhood to Kozol. They feel unwanted, and nobody will miss them if they happened to disappear. If something happened to them and they happened to die or disappear there is going to be a relief as there would be no noise again, this is some of the views of the black children on racial discrimination in the schools and the society. The students in the schools are to be silent during their lunch breaks, sit in rows on the floors of small rooms. The scenario of P.S. 65 an elementary school of south Bronx is the worst and has the highest turnover rate of teachers. The schools will be in chaos when teachers leave without warning and often takes more than a week to find a replacement. The teachers in the schools get in the school without the training of being a teacher but only have the short summer preparations and are put in classrooms to teach. On the walls of the school in fourth grade are portfolios to guide the students as well as the mathematical curriculum. The students were advised to make no noise while in class, and strange gestures were used to quite the students. On Jonathan's visit to the school, an assistant was assigned to him to follow him every he went which is an unusual trend in a public school where he always went around the school unsupervised and entered any class we wished to and not the preselected once. Also not very usual to him is the teacher that was in the class he visited did not acknowledge his presence in the classroom. The teacher later explained to his the method he was using in class to be the one that is in use at the coffee factories. The teachers were very controlling in all the classes, and there was not even a hint of emotion from the teachers and the students. There are similar schools in Cuba which have the same system of education, but the student was given the freedom to ask questions and the teachers could moment on the remarks of the students. The teachers could also interrupt the lesson to interject to something funny that a student might have said. The school used a highly directive measure that resembles the suc...