Activist denounces class gap

While observing children in the setting of an after-school program in the South Bronx in the 1960s, Jonathan Kozol was accompanied by Mr. Rogers, the famous children's television star. The conditions that they encountered were summed up by Elio, a young child within the South Bronx public school children, who ran up to Mr. Rogers, hugged his knees and exclaimed, "Welcome to my neighborhood." Kozol, a well-known social activist and novelist, spoke as part of the Civic House Associates Coalition Speaker Series yesterday to a crowd of more than 200 undergraduates, graduates and Philadelphia community members in Meyerson Hall. For three decades, Kozol has dedicated his time toward researching social issues like illiteracy, education reform and urban schools. He has written several novels on these topics, including Death at an Early Age and, most recently, Ordinary Resurrection. A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard University and a Rhodes Scholar, Kozol entered the education career field in 1964 as a substitute fourth-grade teacher at a segregated Boston public school. After "experiencing first-hand the effects of apartheid" within the school's walls, Kozol focused on incorporating new literature into his students' curriculum. "I was damned if I was going to end the year without teaching the kids something beautiful," Kozol said. As Kozol began introducing poets like Robert Frost and Langston Hughes to the 9 year-olds, he saw the children begin to take interest in learning, "sitting on the edge of their chairs." However, Kozol, who is white, was immediately fired from his position. Although the headlines in local papers read "Rhodes Scholar fired from fourth grade for curriculum deviation," he claims he was fired for teaching racially controversial literature. "I was fired for teaching Langston Hughes. They just threw in Robert Frost to be unprejudiced," he said. By traveling to various regions of the United States, Kozol saw disparities among the conditions of upper- and lower-class citizens. "I don't romanticize anything," Kozol said, relating his discovery that, of the 11,000 elementary school children in the South Bronx, only 21 were white. "That's 99.8 percent apartheid socially and economically enforced in the north," he said. He noted that the highest salary for a New York City teacher is $70,000, while in the suburban neighborhood of Scarsdale it's over $100,000. Kozol recognized the role that each person plays in the enactment of these injustices. To the audience he declared, "You are the winners of a game that was rigged from the very beginning, which contaminates your success." And although the volunteer help given by high school and college students is "a blessed thing," Kozol argued that "charity is not a substitute for justice. It isn't now, and it never was." The audience was comprised of Penn undergraduates interested in education and others who were simply interested in social issues. Said Medical School student Jennifer Shin, "I was interested in his perspective because he's so entrenched in the educational system."