Death at an Early Age facts for kids
Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools (reissue ISBN: 0-452-26292-5) is a powerful book written by the American schoolteacher Jonathan Kozol. It was published in Boston by Houghton Mifflin in 1967. This book was so important that it won a major prize, the U.S. National Book Award, in the Science, Philosophy and Religion category.
What the Book is About
This book tells the story of Jonathan Kozol's first year teaching. He taught a fourth-grade class in one of the most crowded schools in Boston. This school was in an inner-city area called Roxbury.
A Teacher's Difficult Experience
Kozol wrote about the serious problems he saw in the Boston Public Schools. He described how schools had policies that led to racial segregation. This meant that students of different races were kept apart. He also saw a lot of inequality. The school buildings were old and falling apart. For example, his "classroom" was not even a real room. It was just a corner of a large auditorium. Other classes were also being taught in the same space. One day, a big window in the auditorium even fell out while he was teaching.
Why the Teacher Was Fired
The book also shares what happened when Kozol was fired from his job. He had taught his reading class a poem called "The Ballad of the Landlord." This poem was written by Langston Hughes. It talks about how people renting homes were treated unfairly by their landlords. The day after he shared the poem, a school official told him something very strict. They said that teachers could not read any literature that was not on the official list. They needed special permission from someone higher up to do so. Because he did not follow this rule, Jonathan Kozol was fired from his teaching job.
