Jonathan Kozol’s Fremont High School Essay

In the article “Fremont high school”, Jonathan Kozol describes how the inability to provide the needed funding and address the necessities of minority children is preventing students from functioning properly at school. He talks to Meriya, a student who expresses her disgust on the unequal consideration given to urban and suburban schools. She and her classmates undergo physical and personal embarrassments. Kozol states that the average ninth grade student reads at fourth or fifth grade level while a third read at third grade level or below. Although academic problems are the main factor for low grades, students deal with other factors every day. For example, School bathrooms are unsanitary, air condition does not work, classrooms have limited

Lincoln High School, which is located in a low-income neighborhood in San Diego, was a rebuilt after 50 years of failing to educate children. Rebuilding the high school was the answer the community had been looking for they were hopeful. Before the rebuild most students who attended Lincoln did not meet the standards for their grade-level, few graduated and even fewer went go on to college. After years of suffering and neglect there was little doubt That Lincoln High School deserved the $129 million it received from the city to rebuild. But was rebuilding the school the solution for Lincoln High School 's education problem? First we’ll examine, How the problem started, the decision making steps and if the plan was successful.

In the city of Los Angeles is Fremont High School, and unlike most schools in the country, this one runs on a three-track schedule, meaning that it is open year round with short numerous breaks throughout the year. The school contains 3,300 students in attendance year round and being that the school is lacking in funds and hindering the students from following their dreams, this is very impactful on a large amount of people beause it lacks also preparation for college. In the article, “Fremont High School”, Jonathan Kozol examines the conditions of Fremont High School from the perspective of the students, and teachers alike. He uses statistics that have been submitted to the courts during depositions and student recounts of activity. Jonathan Kozol uses persuasive techniques such as ethos, logos, and pathos in the article, “Fremont High School”, to persuade the audience, members of society, that they can help by providing funds, because of the lack of funding it has caused a disservice to the students, causing students to struggle with following their dreams.

Many education writers have much to say about the education-taking place in our public schools, as well as Kozol. For Instance Diane Ravitch a research professor of education at New York University spoke about an interesting truth, saying, “The achievement gaps are rooted in social, political, and economic structures. If we are unwilling to change the root cause, we are unlikely ever to close the gaps.” The success of our children’s education is mainly caused by economic, social and political statue. If one does not end the cycle the gap will most likely never close. This may tie in with when Kozol cites Marina Warner, an essayist and novelist, saying, “There are expensive children and there

Schools lacking social utilities that are needed to promote the academic status of its students is an issue. Whether these benefits should be kept opened or closed is widely debated in most societies. The condition of such schools is an important issue because it determines the future of its students academically. Some issues facing schools include social, public and economic issues; this essay will consider arguments concerning the social, public and economical causes of this problem through the use of Jonathan Kozol 's "FREMONT HIGH SCHOOL", which was written to expose the poor conditions in Fremont high school and seek in the improvement of the school system.

​According to dicitonaity.com, a ghetto is “a section of a city, especially a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or other minority group, often as a result of social or economic restrictions, pressures, or hardships” (“Ghetto”). The five major ghettos were established in Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Lublin, and Lvov (“Holocaust Timeline: The Ghettos”). The Nazi Party used three different types of ghettos to isolate Jews from society. The three types were closed, open, and reconstruction ghettos (“Types of Ghettos”). Closed ghettos were the most common and often had high mortality rates as they were closed off with stone or brick walls, wooden fences, and barbed wire. The largest ghetto, Warsaw, was a closed ghetto and had over 400,000 people in an area of 1.3 squared miles (“Holocaust Timeline: The Ghettos”). Open ghettos had no physical barriers, but restrictions on entering and were often only in small towns used for temporary housing before relocating to a larger, often closed, ghetto. The majority of open ghettos were located in small towns, and in the countries of Poland, the occupied Soviet Union, and Transnistria. Lastly, deconstruction ghettos were tightly sealed off and only

Oakland fell into the Alternative Education Law program. Students worked at their own pace and speed to complete school. Oakland High School generally graduated between 15-20 students a year. Several smaller programs existed within the school, such as Region 5, or ALC (Alternative Learning Center) program or Lincoln Tree Farm. Region 5 were for student who were in transition from just being released from either Echo Glenn or Green hill youth jail facilities. They worked with a JRA representatives and would complete school work and prepare to reenter the comprehensive high school setting. They would have no contact with the remainder of the building and programs. This program ended during the 2007-2008 school year.

Union Hill Elementary School is embedded in an area of rich history in the City of Worcester. Their school building was built following the Civil War and has withstood the changes of time from its early years of a primarily Jewish Immigrant and merchant town to today’s urban neighborhood, rich in diversity but plagued with instability, crime and poverty. In March of 2010, Union Hill was identified as a Level IV School; it was a school that lacked structure with a chaotic environment with many deficits. There was a lack of supervision, schedule, standard-based curriculum, effective instruction and leadership. Most importantly, there was a lack of trust among the parents. They did not have the faith that Union Hill was going to give their children the best education possible. Under the supervision of new Principal Marie Morse, changes were made. There was a new level of commitment and passion among the school staff that drove them toward creating five areas of focus for the year:

According to Merriam-Webster a ghetto is, “ a part of a city in which members of a particular group or race live usually in poor conditions (ghetto).” This paper will focus, however, on what daily life was like in the ghettos, what Jews did or didn’t do to prevent their fate, and how Holocaust survivors are doing now. I chose this topic because when Elie and his family were living in the ghetto in the beginning of Night, it seemed as though they had plenty of opportunities to escape that they didn’t take. It also seemed much closer to pleasant than I imagined, and I was curious to see if that was completely true.

Schools frequently cite a variety of social problems like poverty, broken homes, and bad parenting as excuses for their own poor performance (Greene, 289). In the article of The Myth of Helplessness it touches on a few reasons why it is believed that some schools have great reviews and others don’t. Greene talks about what others believe helps the school systems and what is believed that causes students to fail in school. I agree with author Jay P. Greene that, yes poverty, broken homes and other social problems pose a significant challenge but the evidence simply does not leave room for the conclusion that these challenges are insurmountable (290).

Once again, he finds children that are forced to learn in a facility that isn’t fit to be inhabited, much less a school. He the visits P.S. 79, which is extremely overcrowded, After viewing these two decrepit schools, he visits Riverdale, P.S. 24. Because of the property value of the houses around Riverdale, the school gets a lot more money than either P.S. 261 or P.S. 79. This chapter focuses on how money is divided up to schools. It appears that the value of the homes in the district far a school determines the amount of money that in invested into that school. Kozol emphasized the importance of financial need in the school system therefore giving a positive outlook on many of the schools. He incorporated the fact that values and income does determine the level of a child’s education.

Public education is a fundamental part of society and the responsibility of our communities, local and state governments, to invest in the education of our youth. Yet, the contrasts between a child’s education is greatly dependent on the wealth of the family and neighborhood. Kozol said,

The ghettos were streets where Jewish people lived. The three main ghettos were Lodz, Warsaw, and Theresienstadt. It had horrible living conditions. They were non-sanitary, bad electricity, extremely crowded, and there was not enough food. Contagious diseases spread rapidly due to all of these bad conditions. Everyday children became orphaned, and many had to take care of younger

Secondary education is a highly debated subject. Many critics of secondary education say that inner-city high schools and students are not receiving the same attention as students from non inner-city high schools. Two of the biggest concerns are the lack of school funding that inner-city high schools are receive and the low success rate in sending inner-city high schools graduates to college. Critics say that while inner-city high schools struggle to pay its teachers and educate its student’s non inner-city high schools don’t have to deal with the lack of school funding. Also students from non inner-city high school are not being given the opportunity to attend colleges once the

I really enjoyed your post. The word ghetto stems from when European cities in which the Jews were restricted, and later used to describe a slum section of an American city, predominantly occupied by a minority group who live under social and economic pressures. The word represents an institutional and historical basis of racial exclusion. The word ghetto also has a particular racial component, and defines those associated with the word as being represented by social isolation, residential segregation, gross inequality, consistent poverty, and crime.