Letters to a Young Teacher by Jonathan Kozol
Review by Andrew Fersch
Jonathan Kozol is the Michael Moore of educational philosophy. Physically unappealing, consistent in his repertoire, and utterly obnoxious in his manner of presenting what it is he aims to spread the message. On the same token, he has a message which America needs to hear, regardless of whether or not America is smart enough to listen.
Since the 60’s, Kozol has been on the forefront of American educational theory and policy. He has been an elementary teacher in the cities and suburbs, a fancy lad at Harvard, a spokesperson for the downtrodden and disenfranchised, and now, an imitation Gandhi (soon after the publication of Letters to a Young Teacher he began a “hunger strike” of sorts he is still on).
It’s hard to one up yourself when the most important work you have done (Savage Inequalities) is the first thing you did (about 47 years ago). In Letters to a Young Teacher, Kozol luckily does not try to do this, unfortunately he hardly tries anything new as well and as a result, LTAYT breaks no new ground, merely kicks around the dried up clumps he dug up in his heyday.
The correspondence between Kozol and first year teacher “Francesca” is one sided (and not at best, other than Kozol’s mentions of what Francesca asked, we never actually get to read anything of hers or really get any idea of her personality (other than the fact that Kozol clearly idolizes her in some way, or at least idealizes her as the future of the profession of teaching)). Clearly a well thought out book from the first letter, Kozol does not correspond as one educator to another, he insists on corresponding as one writer to a teacher. This decision makes for very awkward stylistic mistakes, which mar an otherwise very clear idea for a novel.
Kozol sticks to his nom de plume, pointing out the horrible inequities that American schools face, as well as clearly pointing out future concerns most Americas are not educated enough when it comes to education policy to understand. Whether dropping knowledge about America’s willingness to return to segregated schooling, or sharing harrowing details of the plight of America’s inner-city schools compared to those in the suburbs, Kozol still shines when talking about what he is most passionate about, inequality.
Unfortunately, much of Kozol’s message is merely the reiteration of what he’s been saying all along, America’s wealthy care little for the education of America’s poor. And it’s true; Kozol shouldn’t have to write another book about it in order to get it across to the general public.
Fact of the matter is Kozol is a genius in some ways. He has dedicated his life to education in a venue he feels he can offer the most in, policy. His regret that he’s not constantly with children consistently shines through in his work and as a teacher; it is a feeling that is beyond respectable. There is one lesson to learn from this book though, educator or otherwise, and that is if we, as a people, really care about educating children, we need to start caring about all children, not just those children who seem the most promising, or remind us of ourselves when we were younger. Education should be a right, not a privilege, and Kozol, as much as any American, clearly believes this is an inalienable right.