Why I am Fasting: An Explanation to My Friends
This morning, I am entering the 67th day of a partial fast that I began early in the summer as my personal act of protest at the vicious damage being done to inner-city children by the federal education law No Child Left Behind, a racially punitive piece of legislation that Congress will either renew, abolish, or, as thousands of teachers pray, radically revise in the weeks immediately ahead.
The poisonous essence of this law lies in the mania of obsessive testing it has forced upon our nation's schools and, in the case of underfunded, overcrowded inner-city schools, the miserable drill-and-kill curriculum of robotic "teaching to the test" it has imposed on teachers, the best of whom are fleeing from these schools because they know that this debased curriculum would never have been tolerated in the good suburban schools that they, themselves, attended.
The justification for this law was the presumptuous and ignorant determination by the White House that our urban schools are, for the most part, staffed by mediocre drones who will suddenly become terrific teachers if we place a sword of terror just above their heads and threaten them with penalties if they do not pump their students' scores by using proto-military methods of instruction -- scripted texts and hand-held timers -- that will rescue them from doing any thinking of their own. There are some mediocre teachers in our schools (there are mediocre lawyers, mediocre senators, and mediocre presidents as well), but hopelessly dull and unimaginative teachers do not suddenly turn into classroom wizards under a regimen that transforms their classrooms into test-prep factories.
The real effect of No Child Left Behind is to drive away the tens of thousands of exciting and high-spirited, superbly educated teachers whom our urban districts struggle to attract into these schools. There are more remarkable young teachers like this coming into inner-city education than at any time I've seen in more than 40 years. The challenge isn't to recruit them; it's to keep them. But 50 percent of the glowing young idealists I have been recruiting from the nation's most respected colleges and universities are throwing up their hands and giving up their jobs within three years.
When I ask them why they've grown demoralized, they routinely tell me it's the feeling of continual anxiety, the sense of being in a kind of "state of siege," as well as the pressure to conform to teaching methods that drain every bit of joy out of the hours that their children spend with them in school.
"I didn't study all these years," a highly principled and effective first-grade teacher told me -- she had studied literature and anthropology in college while also having been immersed in education courses -- "in order to turn black babies into mindless little robots, denied the normal breadth of learning, all the arts and sciences, all the joy in reading literary classics, all the spontaneity and power to ask interesting questions, that kids are getting in the middle-class white systems."
At a moment when black and Hispanic students are more segregated than at any time since 1968 (in the typical inner-city school I visit, out of an enrollment that may range from 800 to 4,000 students, there are seldom more than five or six white children), NCLB adds yet another factor of division between children of minorities and those in the mainstream of society. In good suburban classrooms, children master the essential skills not from terror but from exhilaration, inspired in them by their teachers, in the act of learning in itself. They're also given critical capacities that they will need if they're to succeed in college and to function as discerning citizens who have the power to interrogate reality. They learn to ask the questions that will shape the nation's future, while inner-city kids are being trained to give prescripted answers and to acquiesce in their subordinate position in society.
In the wake of the calamitous Supreme Court ruling in the end of June that prohibited not only state-enforced but even voluntary programs of school integration, No Child Left Behind -- unless it is dramatically transformed -- will drive an even deeper wedge between two utterly divided sectors of American society. This, then, is the reason I've been fasting, taking only small amounts of mostly liquid foods each day, and, when I have stomach pains, other forms of nourishment at times, a stipulation that my doctor has insisted on in order to avert the risk of doing longterm damage to my heart. Twenty-nine pounds lighter than I was when I began, I've been dreaming about big delicious dinners.
Still, I feel an obligation to those many teachers who have told me, not as an accusation but respectfully, that it was one of my books that diverted them from easier, more lucrative careers and brought them into teaching in the first place. Some call me in the evenings, on the verge of tears, to tell me of the maddening frustration that they feel at being forced to teach in ways that make them hate themselves.
I don't want them to quit their jobs. I give them whatever good survival strategies I can. I tell them that the best defense is to be extremely good at what they do: Deliver the skills! Don't let your classroom grow chaotic! A teacher who can keep a reasonable sense of calm within her room, particularly in a school in which disorder has been common, renders herself almost inexpendable.
At the same time, I always recommend a healthy dose of sly irreverence and a sense of playful and ironical detachment from the criticisms of those clipboard bureaucrats who come around to check on them. (Teachers call them "the curriculum cops" or "NCLB overseers.") I urge them to develop mischievous and inventive ways to convince these gloomy-looking people that whatever they are teaching at that moment, no matter how delectably subversive it may be, is, in fact, directly geared to one of those little chunks of amputated knowledge, known as "state proficiencies," they are supposed to be "delivering" at that specific minute of the day.
But I've also felt the obligation to bring this battle to its source in Washington. I've tried very hard to convince a number of the more enlightened Democrats who serve on the Senate education panel to introduce amendments that will drastically reduce our government's reliance upon standardized exams in judgment of a child, school, or teacher, and attribute greater weight to factors that are not so simple-mindedly reducible to numbers.
Sophisticated as opposed to low-grade methods of assessment would not only tell us whether little Oscar or Shaniqua started out their essays with "a topic sentence" but would also tell us whether they wrote something with the slightest hint of authenticity and charm or simply stamped out insincere placebos. (A child gets no credit for originality or authenticity under No Child Left Behind. Sincerity gets no rewards. Endearing stylistic eccentricity, needless to say, is not rewarded either. That which can't be measured is not valued by the technocrats of uniformity who have designed this miserable piece of legislation.)
On a separate battlefront, I've also tried to win support for an amendment to the law that will take advantage of one of the loop-holes in the recent segregation ruling, an opening that Justice Kennedy has offered us by his insistence that criteria that are not race-specific may be used in order to advance diversity in public schools.
There is a provision in No Child Left Behind that permits a child in a chronically low-performing school to transfer to a more successful school. Up to now, it hasn't worked because there aren't enough successful schools in inner-city districts to which kids can transfer. The Democrats, I've argued, have the opportunity to make this option workable if they are sufficiently audacious to require states to authorize a child's right to transfer across district lines, and provide financial means to make this possible, so that children trapped in truly hopeless schools could, if their parents so desired, go to school in one of the high-spending suburbs that are often a mere 20-minute ride from their front door.
I was surprised that none of the senators with whom I spoke rejected this proposal as too controversial or politically unthinkable. More than one made clear that they enjoyed the notion of helping to "improve" a flawed provision that the White House had included in the law for reasons that most certainly were not intended to enable inner-city kids to go to beautiful suburban schools with 16 or 18 children in a room, instead of 29, or 35, or 40, as in many urban systems.
It was, however, on the testing issue that I received the most explicitly unqualified and positive response. Several of the senators made a lot of time available to think aloud about the ways in which to get rid of that sense of siege so many teachers had described and to be certain that we do not keep on driving out these talented young people from our schools.
The only member of the Democratic leadership I have been unable to get through to is the influential chairman of the education panel, Senator Ted Kennedy, who, one of his colleagues told me flatly, will ultimately "call the shots" on this decision. I've asked the senator three times if he'll talk with me. Each time, I have run into a cold stone wall. This has disappointed me, and startled me, because the senator has been a friend to me in years gone by and has asked for my ideas on education on a number of occasions in the decades since I was a youthful teacher and he was a youthful politician.
Senator Kennedy is, of course, a very busy man and has many other issues of importance he must deal with. But it's also possible, aides to other senators suggest, that he does not wish to contemplate dramatic changes in the law because he co-sponsored the initial bill in a deal with the Republicans. He is also renowned as a gifted builder of consensus in the legislative process. Lending his support to either of the two proposals I have made would almost surely guarantee a knockdown battle with conservative Republicans and, perhaps, with some of the Democratic neoliberals as well.
Still, Senator Kennedy has displayed a genuine nobility of vision in defense of elemental fair play for low-income children many times before. Is it possible that he may rise to the occasion once again? If he does, I may finally listen to the worries of my friends and decide it's time to bring this episode of fasting to an end. If not, I'll keep slogging on. It's a tiny price to pay compared to what so many of our children and their teachers have to go through every single day.
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Thank you for contributing this log on "no child left behind." It could also read -- "all children are left behind." You are so right about the cloning that is the primary tool for this legislation and the testing services and the drug companies are the major benefactors.
I hope you know that kids are not learning when they are drugged and given labels such as ADD or ADHD in epidemic proportions. What kid can sit and take this forced learning without being agitated, anxious, stressed, depressed and angry. Come on, schools and education are like mental health practice, you either take the pill or you won't survive.
Drugging kids in America is one of our least talked about interventions in our public schools. Like Pink Floyd demands -- "Leave those Kids Alone...."
What a crock. The schools are totally dysfunctional because of liberalism’s influence over the years and the fact that the vast majority of teachers are dunderheads. With an exception of a small percentage the vast majority of teachers are folks who failed out of their first major. The dirty little secret is teaching degrees only require someone to have pulse. Fail out of mathematics switch to teaching. Fail out of biology switch to teaching.
The result is a filter system that over time produces generations of teachers that are dumb as rocks. Look at states where they started testing the teachers. Of course the teachers unions fought tooth an nail to prevent it. The first round of testing in Florida had about 25% that’s right 25% of the TEACHERS failed 12 grade level material.
Liberalism destroyed the school and dumbed down our kids to what 15th worldwide now, while costing more that almost anyone else.
You what to fix the schools? Start replacing all the current teachers with retiring baby boomers that have been out in the real world and succeeded in the given professions. There is more than enough very qualified retiring BB that could turn the situation around.
Will it ever happen, no, because the Liberals and teacher unions will never give up the glorified welfare system for adults paid to basically baby-sit kids.
Anyone who sends their kids to public schools is guilty of child abuse. Pass out vouchers hire BB and kick the current crop of teachers out along with their Liberal huggy feelie can not fail everyone gets a passing grade, and 1+1=3 if you say so nutso system
We live in a corrupt and imperialist nation and you think your fasting will change that?
I could have told you that nclb would be a failure when it stated. It is results only oriented approach to educating our young and fails to understand process oriented on going continual improvement.
As long as we American stay a results only oriented country the decline will continue in not only education but also our wealth as a nation. Translated: there goes the middle class.
Keep up the good work. I believe you could do a lot better by really fasting. In fact I have never heard of partial fasting. Isn't it a little like partial eating? I think you would do better to emulate Deck Gregory, although he got really fat before he started fasting. Of course crowing to your friends about partial fasting sounds a little narcistic.
Mr. Kozol,
While I am sure that being called a living saint by the ingratiating is hard to resist, I find your entire approach to education wide of the mark when it comes to what is needed most. In fact, with all due respect, I find it arrogant, because to believe that any sort of bureaucracy issuing top-down requirements, whether NCLB or your preferred flavor is best, displays an attitude that you (or x) knows better than local communities. Why not instead eliminate all departments of education, federal and state, beyond local boards who really would thrive if permitted the chance. We both know the answer. Entrenched interests would suffer. Until you can look that glaring fact in the face, you are the wind that folks who really care are spitting into.
The fair acronym for NCLB is "No Cash Left Behind." I'm reminded of a time when the minority party Republicans used to rally against what they called "unfunded federal mandates" as a way to protect their corporate donors from social responsibilities.
The bill drains the most vital resources of all, time and talent, from our schools. Left unchecked, it will further undermine the egalitarian ideal upon which our public school system was founded.
Dear Mr. Kozol,
The first book I read on education was "Savage Inequalities;" it affected me deeply. I decided to help fix this system for those children who need the system the most.
But sharing your commitment, I find your approach immature. Instead of just decrying current failures I tried to learn HOW to fix things. What I discovered changed my mind about many policies including No Child Left Behind.
The most important input in education is not money but teacher quality. And the rich, and the white get better teachers.
Poor kids, black kids, and Latino kids can learn , can pass tests, and can achieve as high or higher than their rich or white peers, but they need outstanding teachers to help them do it. Healthcare and income support, while valuable, don't make poor kids learn; GOOD TEACHING makes poor kids learn. The painful truth, that people really need to own up to, is that if poor and minority kids don't know much, it's because they haven't been taught much. If your students can't read, THEN YOU HAVE NOT TAUGHT THEM TO READ.
Tests can tell us who has basic skills and who doesn't. NCLB does two things: 1) tells us which schools have not succeeded in catching their students up and 2) demands that those schools do better for their students. Those are necessary steps. The third step can only be taken by the educators.
Educators must figure out how to do whatever is necessary to teach kids who come in behind. If mindless test-prep is the best they can come up with, then they need to go back and learn other approaches. It's not the race track which makes a runner cut corners; it's his fear that he can't run fast enough.
NCLB turned on the light, and what we saw was scary. I think most of those who are turning into drill and kill machines just don't know what else to do. One thing that won't make the problem go away: turning off the lights.
This is one of the best things I have read anywhere regarding this critical subject, anywhere. THank you.
What is so laughable is everyone knows what needs to be done. But no one will do it. Funny 40 years ago the US was 1st in the world. Real simple go back to teaching methods of 40 years ago.
Nothing would be worse.
The world has changed. We're already far enough behind. To go backwards would be the height of stupidity. What we need is to get over our self-defeating navel-gazing and look at what successful countries are doing.
Mr. Dewey, I find your perspective naive. How many years did you spend in an inner-city classroom?
It am astounded that Mr. Kozol and many others have reacted this way to NCLB. They are all forgetting the era that spawned the "A Nation at Risk" report, wherein students who could not read or perform simple calculations graduated from American high schools. In other words, we are in this situation because we put ourselves here. This mindless backlash against testing ignores the reasons for testing -- to find out what children know and can do. No, the tests are not measures of higher order thinking skills -- I know no one who claims that they are. No, they are not the sole information that should be used to make decisions about a student, a teacher, a school, or a principal. Test scores are one small piece of data that can help clarify a big picture.
NCLB tests are intended to measure basic knowledge and skills. The items test decoding of words and recall of facts. Studies (Achieve, for example) have shown that NCLB tests are not challenging and measure the lowest level of skills a child should be able to accomplish. The results of such a test can't show you that children are learning critical thinking, but they can show you that children can't read. If a child can't pass a test of lower level reading and computation, then something has gone terribly wrong in that child's education and we should all be aware of that situation.
School districts have reacted illogically to NCLB testing by instituting drill and kill routines, pacing plans, and a variety of practices designed to take the art and individuality out of teaching, but blaming the test is completely wrong. In our society, we test a lot of things in order to make good decisions. Local health departments test restaurant kitchens, but we don't hear chefs whining about it. We test doctors, police officers, teachers, etc., because we need to know that they have the minimum competence and knowledge to do their jobs. We want to toss out the yardstick that tells us how kids in our publicly supported schools are performing? Nonsense.
I am a teacher educator and have been for many years. I have fought everyday for the rights of children and have done my very best to help new teachers understand the need to teach children in ways that promote dignity, personal exploration, and a curious nature. I have been inspired every step of the way by Jonathan Kozol. I understand his need to fast. All of us in public education who care so deeply for its mission and purpose are fasting away parts of our intellect and passion but feel so powerless to stop the misguided course of this country's education policies. I stand in spirit with his fast.
As a teacher for 29 years I'd like to share we call it No Child Left Untested.
What many people don't understand is the time AWAY from instruction tests take. At an elementary school level in Washington state the WASL takes almost 10 days for 5th grade. That's time we could be teaching!
School isn't meant to be good for us. Like jobs, it's just the dribble-down allowed us that we're supposed to believe goes along with 'democracy'. This actually fits, given how perverse 'democracy' here, is.
Everybody hates school.
School is the sanctuary of the commodity; the commodity of history - a subject; of art - a subject; of science - a subject; etc. as though these can be separated.
As commodities, they can be. As reason, understanding, enjoyment of knowing they are one subject - living.
Kozol tells us of the discomforts school is. But there's no offer to change things; just to 'reform'. But that won't help, won't change it.
I've proposed we put people on school boards to hear the discomfort that is school, so we can look for solutions in system change - of the whole system. We could, you know.
Thank you for trying to do what you can to end this travesty called NCLB. It is about killing learning and creating more cannon fodder for the military. It should be scrapped as another failed program from the Repubs.
I am astonished that Ted Kennedy is not for scrapping it. Even if he co-sponsored it, it has obviously failed, so changing course seems to be the logical thing to do. Dems are all about changing if failure is obvious, what is his problem?
Dear Mr. Kozol,
I have admired you & your work since the late '60's. I plan to forward your excellent article to my Senators, but I would have done so without your fasting, & I do so now in spite of it!
Please stop -- if not for yourself & your friends, for people (& children) like me who are sensitive to physical suffering, so that we suffer as well, without choice! Nor is it good for the kids for whom you advocate to feel responsible for your condition! This last point is one with which you cannot disagree while being true to your own principles.
Good for you Mr. Kozol. More people in America should find a good cause and fast as it is good for the body as well as for the soul. Every religion has recommended fasting, so it has to have a purifying affect upon the body, if not the soul. Very inspirational! You'll stop when you are "directed" to do so. Today's children will thank you tomorrow!
Good luck with your fast...this has long been a time-honored way of expressing disagreement. That even one person feels strongly enough about this terrible situation to take a personal stand should give us all a bit of hope...something that's very hard to come by these dark days.
American kids need to be taught critical thinking, not just to memorize the answers to a test.
Unfortunately, that's exactly what republiCONS don't want, because if you can think beyond 30 second soundbites, you can see through their BS.
Kids from India and China are WAY smarter than American idiot kids.
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