Running head: SAVAGE INEQUALITIES BOOK REVIEW 1

Savage Inequalities
By: Jonathan Kozol
Book Review
Mario Davila
University of St. Thomas
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My initial response to the book was eye opening. I knew public schools were segregated

and resources were distributed very unequally but, to see how other schools navigate through this

heart-breaking reality was truly devastating. The realization that ground-breaking supreme court

cases like Brown v. Board of Education only happened 37 years before this book was written

was eerie. When learning about Brown v. Board of Education in grade school and while

completing my undergraduate degree, it seemed like something that happened so far away from

where we are today. The right that children regardless of race and economic background should

receive the same quality of education seemed so basic and obvious. However, after working in

public education and reading works like Savage Inequalities so many facts are brought to light.

Jonathan Kozol describes the harsh realities of public education around the United States

during the late 1980’s and 1990. Kozol first worked at a public-school teacher at a very low-

income school where he was fired for including poems by Robert Frost and Langston Hughes in

his teaching. The administration thought the poems to be too advanced and racy for their low

performing 4th graders. Kozol was then hired on at a very wealthy school that had plenty of

resources and support. This is when he began his interest in the inequality of public schooling.

While traveling across the country to different public schools Kozol found that the inequalities

he witnessed in Boston and neighboring cities was occurring all over America. Within the same

cities across railroad tracks the quality of education changed dramatically from school to school.

Many schools he visited lacked proper building maintenance, cleanliness, resources, and

attention.

Kozol writes,

“Conservatives are generally the ones who speak more passionately of patriotic values.

They are often the first to rise up to protest an insult to the flag. But, in this instance, they
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reduce America to something rather tight and mean and sour, and they make the flag less

beautiful than it should be. They soil the flag in telling us to fly it over ruined children’s

heads in ugly segregated schools. Flags in these schools hang motionless and gather dust,

often in airless rooms, and they are frequently no cleaner than the schools themselves.

Children in a dirty school are asked to pledge a dirtied flag. What they learn of patriotism

is not clear.” (p. 210)

This beautifully written extended metaphor is used to describe the disservice many institutions

project onto students. Students who often give up on education because the education system

seems to have given up on them. The “dirtied” flag represents the realization that students’

education is tainted by the inequalities in public schools today. It also highlights how many of

the same politicians who have the power to change these inequalities are the same ones

complaining about the very same outcomes.

Kozol does an exquisite job displaying the inequalities he witnessed throughout America

in his three-year research journey. Every public-school educator should take the time to read this

book and more by this same author. Understanding where we have been and how far we still

need to go is crucial in navigating the course of public-school history. Closing the ever-growing

gap between rich and poor schools will not happen over-night. Every school regardless of

resources, wealth and history has teachers that do back breaking work to get their students to

learn, and hard-working students that despite all odds rise up from the inequalities and make

something great of themselves. One just has to scratch the surface and discover that for

themselves.
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References

Kozol, J. (1991). Savage Inequalities. New York, N.Y.: Broadway Books