School of Education

Kozol speaks to standing-room only crowd as part of 100th anniversary celebration

Author and activist reflects on teacher passion, standards, and Mr. Rogers

Friday, November 21, 2008

Education writer and activist Jonathan Kozol spoke to a packed room at the Indiana Memorial Union about educational opportunity and what he sees as proper teaching standards during a presentation Thursday, November 20 to mark the IU School of Education’s 100th anniversary. More than 300 filled the Frangipani Room to hear the author of educational classics such as Savage Inequalities and Shame of the Nation:  the Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. His most recent book is Letters to a Young Teacher. His speech was sponsored by the School of Education and the School’s Lectures and Seminars Committee.

Delivering what he told the audience he thought was a “tough talk," he spoke out about rigid standards and decried the lack of opportunity to underserved populations. He began his presentation by telling his audience that teachers “are my heroes.” Kozol spoke for an hour and a half, then signed books and spoke to audience members for another hour and a half after his presentation.

The present time, Kozol said, is one of the most regressive for U.S. public education. “I’m working hard with the Senate leaders to make sure a lot of this changes before very long,” he said. He said good teachers aren’t opposed to tests and standards, but are opposed to rigid and impersonal requirements that govern their classrooms.

Kozol spent much of his speech recounting parts of his latest book, Letters to a Young Teacher, recounting correspondence with a Boston elementary teacher, released last year. He spoke about the teacher’s enthusiasm for her class and how the school works within the requirements placed upon it by current education standards. Kozol told the audience, which included pre-service and in-service teachers, that the best teachers let their children speak, even if it’s off topic, to uncover more about the students. “Good teachers use that piece of hidden treasure as the key to unlock motivation,” he said.

Throughout, he noted the need for equal opportunity for all students, particularly form minority groups. “If we seriously hope to close the race gap in this country,” he said, “we’re going to have to start by abolition of the gap of opportunity.”  He added that more money needs to go to teacher pay to allow inner-city teachers to stay in their jobs, and high need districts need better resources. “The poor deserve an extra share because their needs are greater,” he said.

Toward the end of his presentation, Kozol said he especially missed Fred Rogers, better known as “Mr. Rogers,” host of the long-running PBS television show “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Rogers died in 2003. “The wisest educator I ever knew in my entire career,” Kozol said. “He was definitely the best friend little children ever had.”

And if any member of the audience wondered if Kozol sought more official say on education in the new administration than just lobbying members of Congress as he now does, he put that to rest. “I don’t want to be secretary of education,” he said. “I want to be king.”