Letters+to+a+Young+Teacher,+Jonathan+Kozol

Jonathan Kozol is the author of // Letters to a Young Teacher // and several others. He has been working with children in their inner-city schools for more than forty years. He went to Harvard University and graduated in 1958 with a degree in English Literature. Kozol started a non-profit organization called Education Action. This group was dedicated to gathering up teachers from across the world to help organize a group to unify all American public schools. || Kozol wanted to love teaching, but in the beginning it was hard for him to love it because the public school systems at the time were not unified. He did whatever he could to change that. ** || media type="youtube" key="rryBQ7CUCek" height="187" width="192" || Kozol said this after a old window almost fell on a child. It fell on the floor beside them and none of them even screamed. They were probably so used to this happening everyday that it had almost become habit, which is extremely sad. ** || Kozol wanted to be a friend to every single one of his students. So he made them that promise that all teachers had probably made to these kids. The kids felt something different about him and they knew he wasn't going anywhere. ** || || Francesca talks about one of her students here, who was tall and loose-limbed with a comical appearance. Francesca was teacher who Kozol fequently wrote to about his teachings. In this particular sentence they just talk about there love for their students and kids. They both just loved being teachers and loved loving the kids. || and rely on every bit of ingenuity that they command, before they assign these kids to categories out of which, as they move from grade to grade, they sometimes never can escape" (68). A lot of teachers do assign categories to their kids, which is so wrong. The students do not want to be put in categories. They want to just be treated like normal kids and Kozol knew just this. He was almost like a kid in a man's body, because he knew what his students were thinking and how to teach them. ** || ** "You've asked me several times what helped me most in getting through that difficult first year in Roxbury. It's not an easy question...I suspect the answer is the friendship I was able to establish with a number of the parents" (33). Kozol made friends wherever he went, but becoming friends with the parents was good for him because then they would see how great of a teacher he was. The kids would also like him more because there parents liked him and thought he was responsible. ** || "Kozol at Pomona College 17 April 2003". 20 Nov. 2009. Web. 
 * = Jonathan Kozol = || = //Letters to a Young Teacher MM// = ||
 * [[image:commentsfromleftfield.com width="165" height="191" caption="(Jonathan Kozol)"]] || == Biography: ==
 * ** "You asked me how I felt the first day that I ever taught within a public school. The truthful answer is that I was terrified, even more than you were, I suspect, because I'd had no preparation as a teacher" (7).
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a2/Jonathan_Kozol.jpg/800px-Jonathan_Kozol.jpg width="262" height="206" caption=" Kozol at Pomona College 17 April 2003" link="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Jonathan_Kozol.jpg"]] || ** "Some of the children seemed to have accepted these conditions of, at least, did not appear to feel they had the right to question them" (8).
 * ** "I told them that they would not be abandoned. I told them I was there to stay. I don't know why it is that they believed me. They had no reason to accept such promises from yet another teacher" (10).
 * [[image:kozol.gif caption="Kozol working with children"]] || ** "I kind of love him for his style, his defiance, but he has no common sense and absolutely no politeness" (62). **
 * ** "I think that teachers need to be as patient as they can,
 * ** WORKS CITED: **

"Kozol working with children". 20 Nov. 2009. Web. 

"Kozol's book". 20 Nov. 2009. Web. 

"Jonathan Kozol". 20 Nov. 2009. Web. 

Kozol, Jonathan. //Letters to a Young Teacher//. New York: Crown Publishers, 2007. Print. ||  ||