Shame of the Nation

Shame of the Nation

Introduction

Jonathan Kozol is an educator and wrote the book The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. The books highlights how Hispanic students and students of the black race seem to be concentrated in the schools in the United States and how the whole study body comprises of them.

Discussion

It is important to note that Kozol had to visit about 60 different public schools while his preparation for writing of the book. The thesis of Kozol's work revolves around putting an end to the education apartheid that consists of a small community of children, and in his book, he has discussed ways as to how the legal system of the United States can devise practices for fighting apartheid schooling.

In the context of sociology, the concept of social classes have been explored and elaborated in the book. Kozol has highlighted how the children coming from poor families and belonging to minorities have to face various struggles in their quest to attain the same standard of education as the children belonging to the upper social class. The sociological concept of poverty has also been discussed in the book and the segregations based on the social classes have been outlined, as the children coming from the inner part of the city are usually seen wandering aimlessly around the school systems that are made to educate the affluent and deny the poor the right of education. Apart from that, these children are also deprived of voice which would allow them to discuss their rights, and the hopes for a stable future school system are also taken away from them. Then the government blames its failures on the failures of the schools. Kozol has efficiently pointed out how the classrooms, the school and the law conceit the students of the inner city into the similar life stricke by poverty that they themselves had lived in.

Considering the sociological perspective, this book written by Kozol highlights the conflict theory and revolves around the class conflict, as he had travelled to many inner-city schools and had observed patterns that reinforced why minority schools who were predominant always led their students down. Another important aspect that is considered in the book with reference to sociology is that of race. Kozol believes that allowing the minority children to go to schools where their class fellows are not of the same race ...