Over the last 15 years, the state of inner-city public schools
has been in a steep and continuing decline. Since the federal
courts began dismantling the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of
Education, segregation of black children has reverted to its
highest level since 1968. In many inner-city schools, a
stick-and-carrot method of behavioral control traditionally used in
prisons is now used with students. Meanwhile, as high-stakes
testing takes on pathological and punitive dimensions, liberal
education has been increasingly replaced by culturally barren and
robotic methods of instruction that would be rejected out of hand
by schools that serve the mainstream of society.
Filled with the passionate voices of children, principals, and
teachers, and some of the most revered leaders in the black
community, The Shame of the Nation pays tribute to those undefeated
educators who persist against the odds, but directly challenges the
chilling practices now being forced upon our urban systems by the
Bush administration. In their place, Kozol offers a humane,
dramatic challenge to our nation to fulfill at last the promise
made some 50 years ago to all our youngest citizens.
關於作者:
Jonathan Kozol is the National Book Award–winning author of
Death at an Early Age, Rachel and Her Children,
Savage Inequalities, and Amazing Grace. He has been
working with children in inner-city schools for more than 40
years.
目錄:
Introduction
1. Dishonoring the Dead
2. Hitting Them Hardest When They''re Small
3. The Ordering Regime
4. Preparing Minds for Markets
5. The Road to Rome
6. A Hardening of Lines
7. Excluding Beauty
8. False Promises
9. Invitations to Resistance
10. A National Hon''or Hidden in Plain View:Why Not a National
Response?
11. Deadly Lies
12. Treasured Places
Epilogue
APPENDIX
Per-Pupil Spending in Public Schools
of Six Metropolitan Areas
On Curriculum: A Note to Teachers
Updates and Acknowledgments
NOTES
INDEX