Quotes by Jonathan Kozol

About Jonathan Kozol:

Jonathan Kozol is an American writer, educator, and activist. best known for his books on public education in the United States.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

As a matter of record, New York City spends a higher portion of its budget on instruction and associated costs within the schools themselves than any of the other 100 largest districts in the nation.

Jonathan Kozol

Hypersegregated inner-city schools - in which one finds no more than five or ten white children, at the very most, within a student population of as many as 3,000 - are the norm, not the exception, in most northern urban areas today.

Jonathan Kozol

I wrote the first book, and I thought people would say: 'Separate and unequal schools in the City of Boston? I didn't know that. Let's go out and fix it.'

Jonathan Kozol

No Child Left Behind widens the gap between the races more than any piece of educational legislation I've seen in 40 years. It denies inner-city kids the critical-thinking skills to interrogate reality.

Jonathan Kozol

I don't know if anything I write will endure, but I do try to write it as a narrative that will not only challenge but also entice the reader into the lives of children.

Jonathan Kozol

The last thing the theatre owners wanted was for people who spent $200 to see 'Les Miserables' to come out again and see the real miserable children of America, right there on the sidewalk.

Jonathan Kozol

It is our nation which is blind, and needs our prayers.

Jonathan Kozol

At present, black children are more segregated in their public schools than at any time since 1968. In the inner-city schools I visit, minority children typically represent 95 percent to 99 percent of class enrollment.

Jonathan Kozol

The inequalities are greater now than in '92. Some states have equalized per-pupil spending but they set the 'equal level' very low, so that wealthy districts simply raise extra money privately.

Jonathan Kozol

It's sad that some people who have one exciting moment spend the rest of their lives rehashing it.

Jonathan Kozol

If you grow up in the South Bronx today or in south-central Los Angeles or Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, you quickly come to understand that you have been set apart and that there's no will in this society to bring you back into the mainstream.

Jonathan Kozol

But for the children of the poorest people we're stripping the curriculum, removing the arts and music, and drilling the children into useful labor. We're not valuing a child for the time in which she actually is a child.

Jonathan Kozol

Separate and unequal didn't work 100 years ago. It will not work today.

Jonathan Kozol

The trouble is not that schools don't work; they do. They're excellent machines for achieving historically accepted purposes. In suburban schools are children of the rich, who grow up to privilege and anesthetic oblivion to pain - and who then use th...

Jonathan Kozol

Author Bio

  • NameJonathan Kozol
  • DescriptionAmerican activist and educator
  • BornSeptember 5, 1936
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionAuthor
  • AwardsNational Book Award; Conscience-in-Media Award