Preview

Children in Room E4 Book Review

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
576 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Children in Room E4 Book Review
In her skillfully written narrative, Eaton delves into the complex reasons hindering equal access to a quality education for the nation's children, a problem with a long and messy history. Beginning with Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the U.S. courts were, for a few decades at least, a place where civil rights made noteworthy gains. But in many places the attempts at desegregation were never really established, and by the '80s, what had been accomplished was quickly being lost. The reasons for today's education faults are, for many, almost undetectable. The author presents a fascinating group of kids from an inner-city school in Hartford, Connecticut, who struggle to learn in a characteristically disheartened and under-funded urban public school.
Eaton takes her time illustrating how inner-city students, many from single-parent families of the working poor and from crowded, broken-down neighborhoods, require more support than their suburban counterparts in generously funded schools. Spend a day or a week or a year with many of the students in Room E4, as she did, and the urgent need for improved educational equity becomes clear. Eaton supplements her portrait with accounts of the courtroom progress of Sheff v. O'Neil, a lawsuit striving to make legally clear the "blameless" segregation created by the convergence of zoning regulations, municipal politics, discriminatory housing and banking policies and the creation of suburbs. She demonstrates that de jure segregation has been replaced by de facto segregation. There are few winners in this story, and it's made clear that the problems of our troubled public schools have no easy or quick solution. As far as a critique for this book goes, I cannot say much that I would change. While the story was at times slow, that is to be expected with a narrative that describes real life accounts. I personally did not enjoy the book as much as I thought I would, the reason for this is because I am not a fan of the style

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The book, Ain’t No Makin’ It, allows us to enter the world of two distinct peer groups in a low income housing project in America. Jay MacLeod takes us on a journey to explain why the attitudes, beliefs, expectations, and aspirations of these two groups of teenagers differ so greatly despite their similarities. One of the primary focuses is on education and the Hallway Hangers and Brothers experiences within Lincoln High School. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are important documents whose intention is to guarantee basic rights to all people, including children, regardless of where they live in the world. Both documents unequivocally state that education is an important and fundamental right for all. After reading this book, it is my belief that the United States falls short in fulfilling the educational rights set forth in these important declarations. The Brothers and Hallway Hangers were not granted an education that promoted tolerance, encouraged attendance, or provided equity in their education.…

    • 1366 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Education as an Institution of Social Control Education is aimed to provide equal opportunity for any child, no matter where they come from, an equal chance at success. Our school systems are failing because children are not being given that equal opportunity. This means that the institutions society are trusting to end social unfairness, our schools, are the ones boosting social and economic unfairness. The most prominent example of this is ultramodern schools with features such as multiple theaters, massive swimming pools, and indoor and outdoor tracks are being built on one block of a city; whereas, schools a few blocks away barely have a roof over their head remain. Public schools in financially poor cities consist of children who are…

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of I Am A Promise

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Walking down cracked cement streets strewn with used syringes, students, ages four to ten, are captured by the surprising 1993 documentary I am a Promise: The Children of Stanton Elementary School. Taking place in a troubled inner-city neighborhood of northern Philadelphia, the Academy Award winning film explores the dynamics and challenges of a Chapter One School, which is a federally funded school to help disadvantaged poor children who test below the national norms. Stanton is composed of all African- American boys and girls, and over ninety percent of them come from single parent homes and live under the poverty line. In this paper, I will record my reactions toward the film, compare the differences of Stanton and of the schools I attended, and attempt to better understand the achievement gap.…

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a function of housing patterns, Connecticut’s system of public education remains segregated along racial and socio-economic lines. Connecticut’s system of de facto segregation has contributed to the creation of an unconscionable achievement gaps between white, affluent students, and impoverished, minority students. Connecticut’s de facto segregation calls into question our community’s belief in and commitment to the dignity of every human person. The Sacred Heart University Mission Statement calls on our community to, “…share its resources and its special gifts and talents for the betterment of the human community.” Through my research on social justice issues in Connecticut public education, I aim to identify best practices in policy and programming that endeavor to narrow and eventually eliminate racial and socio-economic isolation. This research agenda a perfect fit with the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. I see multiple avenues and themes that support qualitative and quantitative research in the area of social justice in public education that will yield publishable articles that incorporate aspects of the Sacred Heart University Mission and the Catholic Intellectual…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In his essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal,” Jonathan Kozol gives us a very detailed presentation of the emergent trend of racial segregation within America’s urban and inner-city schools. Kozol provides substantiation to his claim based on his research and observations of different school environments, its teachers and students, and personal interviews with them. It is very clear that color of education in America is not green like the dollar bill; it is white if you’re rich and brown if you’re poor. What’s more atrocious is how the government of the people gives more educational benefits to the rich and less to the poor.…

    • 1224 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Furthermore, efforts to reduce racial, ethnic and economic isolation in hyper-segregated elementary schools were ineffective with respect to providing hyper-segregated White and hyper-segregated Minority students the opportunity to learn from and with diverse teachers and students. Thus, we must acknowledge the following realities: (1) While the United States Congress and United States Supreme Court ended de jure segregation, the federal government has not effectively addressed that rampant institutionalized de facto segregation in many states. (2) In Connecticut, while institutionalized de facto segregation has been recognized as unconstitutional, and further recognized as a contributing factor to the low academic performance of Minority students, the policies and practices deriving from legislative action and judicial rulings have not meaningfully effected the segregation of public schools. (3) The vast majority of local efforts to address racial, ethnic and economic isolation has not meaningfully exposed students to diverse students and teachers and are, therefore, ineffective with respect to…

    • 1253 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    There were some situations that I would've changed. It bothered me that Augustus Waters died at the end of the story. I would've also chosen more places that the story could have taken place in. There should have been different places. I liked how Hazel's favorite author turned out to be a complete jerk. He seemed so nice and polite over the emails but once they traveled all that way to meet him he was a complete jerk. I have to admit I did cry while I was reading this book because at the ending of the book Gus died and I thought that was the saddest part of the whole book. I could say that I didn't want that to happen but then the book loses of interest. I would really recommend reading this book. It is a fabulous…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    When the slave ships first brought the first Africans to this country, these African slaves were denied access to books and refused the opportunity for an education in fear that they would eventually cause a revolt against their slave owners. A century later during the Civil Rights Movement in the Untied States, African Americans risked their lives to fight for equality within this country. A breakthrough came with the 1954 Supreme Court case, Brown vs. The Board of Education, which granted all minorities the opportunities to go to the same schools and receive the same education as White people. In the present-day United States, where schools are not segregated and primary school is mandatory for all children, education is understood to be the “great equalizer” between races…but is it? Is education the catalyst for equality, regardless of race or class? In many cases, education alone cannot erase decades of stereotypes and notions made about other races. In excerpts from their articles, authors Peggy McIntosh and Beverly Tatum, offer the perspectives from different races showcasing the flaws in the American education system. Education is proven to make the divisions present in today’s society painfully clear.…

    • 1612 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Life In Schools Analysis

    • 1233 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Life in Schools features extracts from his successful book, "Cries from the Corridor: The New Suburban Ghetto." The narrative inflames analytic confab of social evils and a theoretical background for instituting potential solutions (Parts III & IV). It extensively discusses the issues of race and class, social construction of whiteness, and challenges presented by the present national and foreign policies of the present White House administration (as well as, the No Child Left Behind Act) and their effect on American public schooling…

    • 1233 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oppression in Schools

    • 955 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Inequality in schools can affect how a child develops in life. A child with a solid educational background is bound to have a greater chance of achieving success in life. The upper class students usually have parents with solid bank accounts who can afford to get them a good education. Sadly, poor children are often held back later in life because of their lack of a good education. A child that goes to a suburban school is likely to get better learning materials and teaching methods than a child who goes to an urban school. The race of students going to a school, unfortunately shows how a school district feels about the students and faculty. American schools being segregated simply shows that America has not moved forward from the Jim Crow laws. In “Still Separate, Still Unequal” Johnathan Kozol doesn’t believe the condition in inner-city schools has anything to do with economic factors. But in “From Social Class the Hidden Curriculum of Work” by Jean Anyon, it’s a different story. She believes the conditions have everything to do with someone’s economic status. Kozol visited an elementary school in New York and spoke to a third grade girl, Alliyah, and got her thoughts of the conditions of her…

    • 955 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    McLaren in his book Life in Schools; utilizes journal entries of his own teaching experience to depict the state of the education system in America, particularly the inequities of education in relation to the economically disadvantaged pupils. He deconstructs carefully the unspoken power structures and institutional oppression present…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oakes, J. (1986b). Tracking, inequality, and the rhetoric of reform: Why schools don’t change. Journal of Education, 168(1), 60—80.…

    • 16063 Words
    • 65 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Some people tend to think that private schools are doing a much better job at producing…

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The education system in the United States has not always looked the way it does today and it was not that long ago when children of different races or sex could even go to the same schools as each other. Yet through many strides done by educational activists the United States government continues to stand by its intention to try to free our schools of racial, sexual, religious and monetary discriminations. This is an ongoing struggle that will need to continue to be fought however to be sure no child is truly left behind or slips through the cracks.…

    • 1451 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Arcello et al. states that “The educational policies had a tremendous impact on the experiences of black students, on school curriculum, and on student identity” (p.676). After closings led to over-crowding at schools on the west side policies were passed that had students only going to go to school for half the day. This is turn developed the alarming stat where 78% of African American children in Chicago were spending 40% less time in schools than students outside of minority communities. Curriculum had to be accelerated due to only half day hours leaving students behind their white peers by not being able to fully grasp concepts before moving on. Student’s identities felt lost because they were forced to leave their neighborhood schools. The use of statistics strengthens how students in poorer neighborhoods are discriminated against with school closings. A former student shared her experience from then, “I [spent] four years trying to figure out whether I’m a little white girl, or a little black girl; I struggled with my identity” (p.676). Again minority students were unfairly treated further contributing to the social inequalities that come from unjust educational…

    • 1473 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays