This was incredibly depressing and hard to read. Each description of an elementary school was more shocking and depressing than the last. 30+ students per class with multiple classes sharing the gym, school buildings absolutely falling down, drugs and depression growing rampant within the communities, diseases and alleged mental retardation due to toxic chemicals and pollution in some cases, statistics that absolutely blow your mind about dropout rates vs. graduation vs. prison etc etc etc. Jonathan Kozol visits a science classroom in a destitute Appalachian district, and asks the teacher: "if more supplies, a cheerier classroom or a better lab would make a difference, he replied that he was "not sure money is the answer." Yikes. The solution seems to be passionate teachers, but above all, a complete overhaul of the education system, where per-child spending differs by the THOUSANDS in richer districts and in poorer districts. I really wonder what a more current version of this book would be like. Definitely a lot more kids with ADD, definitely some mention of childhood obesity, definitely some mention of the adverse effects of No Child Left Behind and the constant testing... Still depressing. I give it three stars just because after several chapters, I was almost numb to the school visit sections, and by the end the book seemed to just drag. Definitely worth reading though. It is such an important issue. Maybe we should just all move to Finland, they recently got some crazy statistic like "Best Country" or something.