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natashavhugen's review
challenging
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
5.0
whoa. this one hits hard. as someone working in a public school right now, i am so grateful for the immensely sobering research Kozol has done and continues to do. it’s horrific to look at our public school system through such stark honesty and see how deeply unequal it all is. Kozol takes truths i knew on a basic level and proves them again and again and again, though legal arguments, personal testimonies, and chilling financial analyses. a must-read for anyone who has ever enjoyed a good education, or suffered through a bad one.
mflynn4's review against another edition
2.0
While interesting at first, it is a monotonous ride of the same statistics from different US cities. I'm bored.
drbatfcc's review against another edition
5.0
Important historical work by one of my favorite educational writers. I will never forget my shock when reading it.
larryerick's review against another edition
3.0
Simply put, this book is a report on how minorities in America are compelled to live in segregated schools with a fraction of the support that affluent white schools receive. The author is a good writer, but I take exception with his presentation. His whole argument could have been presented in a quarter of the space. A huge percentage of the book consists of examples of where white/affluent schools are good and minority/poor schools are trash. Fine, I believe him. I believed him after the first three or four detailed examples. I didn't need a dozen more examples. The author does eventually get around to reasons why the differences are so great and so prevalent and why the "haves" are making sure the "have-nots" stay that way. He also presents that case well, and much more concisely. However, he does little to say what we, the readers, should do about it, especially since he points out how strong the human element is for "protecting" what we have. Some reviewers of this book commented on how "angry" the author was. I'm sure he was, but it doesn't come through in his writing, unless you feel that pointing out injustice as poor manners. And for what it's worth, I finished reading this book the same day of the Newtown school shooting. Despite the horror and sadness of that event, the book had me thinking and wondering how that tragedy to a white affluent community compared to the day-after-day, year-after-year tragedy of poor minorities living with substandard schools, housing, and environmentally trashed neighborhoods.
bsmorris's review against another edition
5.0
If you want to understand what is really wrong with the American education system, and the real reasons our student achievement lags behind that of other industrialized nations, you must read this book. Yes, it was published in 1991, but I just read a recent interview with Kozol in which he said he was marching with the Save our Schools group because things haven't changed since 1991, despite all the so-called efforts of No Child Left Behind. Competition will not save our public schools, the market will not save our public schools - equity is what we really need and there's no quick-fix for that.