Where Are We Now? 25 Years After Death at an Early Age - The 92nd Street Y, New York

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92NY Humanities Audio Collection

Education in America

Where Are We Now? 25 Years After Death at an Early Age

Oct 16, 1991


Jonathan Kozol, an author and educator best known for his books on public education, speaks about the current state of public schools in America. Kozol’s first non-fiction book, Death at an Early Age (1967), describes his first year as a Boston Public School teacher, where he was fired for teaching a Langston Hughes poem. Twenty-five years after its initial publication, Kozol reflects on the ways in which class and race continue to impact public education in his book, Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools (1991). He speaks about his beliefs that schools have become more unequal and separate, that social policies have regressed, and that there is a lack of media coverage of this issues. He also believes that many public policies no longer uphold Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), which was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to rule racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. Kozol proposes solutions to these issues, including increased funding for the Head Start program. The lecture concludes with audience questions.

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