Jonathan Kozol facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jonathan Kozol
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Kozol in 2011
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| Born | September 5, 1936 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Education | Harvard University (AB) Magdalen College, Oxford |
| Subject | Multicultural education, Critical theory, Education reform |
Jonathan Kozol, born on September 5, 1936, is an American writer, activist, and teacher. He is famous for his books about public schools in the United States. He often writes about how schools can be better for all children.
Contents
Jonathan Kozol's Early Life and Education
Jonathan Kozol grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. He went to Noble and Greenough School and then to Harvard University. At Harvard, he studied English literature and graduated in 1958. He also received a special scholarship called a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Magdalen College, Oxford in England.
Instead of finishing his scholarship, Kozol decided to go to Paris, France. There, he learned from experienced writers like William Styron and Richard Wright. When he returned to the United States, he started helping children with their studies in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
Becoming a Teacher and Activist
Soon after, Jonathan Kozol became a teacher in the Boston Public Schools. He was later fired for teaching a poem by Langston Hughes. This experience made him even more involved in the civil rights movement, which worked for equal rights for all people.
After leaving Boston Public Schools, he taught for a few years at Newton Public Schools. However, he soon decided to focus more on social justice and writing. He wanted to help make society fairer for everyone, especially children.
Kozol's Important Work and Awards
Jonathan Kozol has spent more than 40 years working with children in schools, especially those in big cities. He has received many important awards and fellowships for his work. These include two Guggenheim Fellowships and two fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation. These awards helped him continue his important research and writing.
He also helps with Greater Good Magazine, which is published by the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley. In this role, he helps explain scientific research about kindness, helping others, and peaceful relationships.
Jonathan Kozol's Books and Their Impact
Jonathan Kozol has written many powerful books about education and social issues.
Death at an Early Age
His first non-fiction book, Death at an Early Age, came out in 1967. It describes his first year teaching in the Boston Public Schools. This book won the National Book Award and has sold over two million copies. It showed many people the challenges faced by children in some schools.
Other Notable Books
Kozol wrote Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America, which won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award in 1989. This book highlighted the struggles of families without homes.
His book Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools (1991) explored the big differences in schools across America. It showed how some schools had many resources, while others had very few. This book was a finalist for a major book award.
In 1995, he published Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation. This book shared stories from the South Bronx in New York City, which was one of the poorest areas in the United States. It won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.
Later Works on School Segregation
Kozol continued to write about important issues. His 2005 book, The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America, looked at how schools in the U.S. were still separated by race and wealth. He showed how this separation often made things harder for children of color and poor children in cities.
His most recent book, The End to Inequality: Breaking Down the Walls of Apartheid Education in America, was published in 2024. This book continues his lifelong work of fighting for fair and equal education for all children.
Awards and Recognitions
Jonathan Kozol has received many honors for his dedication to education and social justice:
- 1968 National Book Award for Death at an Early Age
- 1970 and 1980 Guggenheim Fellowship
- 1988 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Rachel and Her Children
- 1992 New England Book Award
- 1996 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Amazing Grace
- 2005 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship
- 2013 The Deborah W. Meier Hero in Education Award from FairTest
Jonathan Kozol's Published Books
- The Fume of Poppies (1958)
- Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools (1967)
- Free Schools (1972)
- The Night is Dark and I Am Far from Home (1975)
- Children of the Revolution: A Yankee Teacher in the Cuban Schools (1978)
- Prisoners of Silence: Breaking the Bonds of Adult Illiteracy in the United States (1980)
- On Being a Teacher (1981)
- Alternative Schools: A Guide for Educators and Parents (1982)
- Illiterate America (1986)
- Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America (1988)
- Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools (1991)
- Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation (1995)
- Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope (2000)
- The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America (2005)
- Letters to a Young Teacher (2007)
- Fire in the Ashes: Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America (2012)
- The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father One Day at a Time (2015)
- The End to Inequality: Breaking Down the Walls of Apartheid Education in America (2024)
See also
- Boston Public Schools
- Education in the United States
- Racial inequality in the United States
