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Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools
A first-hand account of a teacher's year in an elementary school in Boston
240 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1967
20 people are currently reading
1740 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Kozol
51 books540 followersJonathan Kozol is a non-fiction writer, educator, and activist best known for his work towards reforming American public schools. Upon graduating from Harvard, he received a Rhodes scholarship. After returning to the United States, Kozol became a teacher in the Boston Public Schools, until he was fired for teaching a Langston Hughes poem. Kozol has held two Guggenheim Fellowships, has twice been a fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation, and has also received fellowships from the Field and Ford Foundations. Most recently, Kozol has founded and is running a non-profit called Education Action. The group is dedicated to grassroots organizing of teachers across the country who wish to push back against NCLB and the most recent Supreme Court decision on desegregation, and to help create a single, excellent, unified system of American public schools.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
August 4, 2021
Time and again, second-hand bookshops have bestowed in my lap obscure but unexpectedly wondrous books. Off the top of my head I can recall Chaim Potok's The Chosen and Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh. Death at an early age, a National Book Award winner from 1968, is another powerful book which I would have never discovered otherwise. Written in the mid 1960's, it is an account of the author, a young white substitute teacher in a predominantly black school in Boston, who was fired for teaching a Langston Hughes poem to fourth grade students.
Jonathan Kozol found himself among students in a compensatory education program who were left neglected on account of the apathy and the deep seated racial hatred of the Boston school system and its teachers. As a teacher, he could not help these children as much as he wanted to -- his hands were tied by the antiquated rules and noxious atmosphere in the school and his initial reluctance to dissent and rebellion as a new substitute staff member.
It is painful to think about young children being made to squander their most formative years sitting listlessly in crumbling buildings (a metal and glass window fell down and almost crushed a little girl), receiving frequent beatings at the slightest hint of transgression (one boy had to be admitted to a hospital), and absorbing the all-pervasive condescension reserved for their race. Thankfully, the author avoids graphic details of the needless cruelty that the children suffer but their behaviour says it all. The case of Stephen, an eight-year-old orphan whose emotional well-being and mental stability are endangered by the brutal disciplining at school and even in his adopted mother's home, is particularly heartbreaking. He is lagging developmentally and is trying to hold on to his last shreds of dignity by hiding his suffering in the face of such alarming bitterness where his creativity is stifled and his self-respect is trampled upon. Deprived of love and affection from those around him, he is so hungry for the tiniest morsel of attention that he tries to get it in every way possible, as a desperate validation of his existence. Unfortunately, his attempts are taken as gross misdemeanors which deserve punitive measures like regular beatings and even a transfer to a discipline school where the school system dumps all the children it find unteachable. Mr. Kozol laments the "waste of years, the loss of chances, the closing of avenues , the end of hopes" which such situations represent.
The Boston School Committee of that time conveniently and vehemently denied any racial segregation in schools citing that the schools only catered to the localities around them. Many of the white teachers were unsympathetic and inherently prejudiced against the black students denying them the respect that they deserved as human beings. So much so that it was forbidden to educate them about their own history as a race because to the teachers being black was a shameful and ugly thing and the students must be shielded from such degradation as long as possible. Consequently, the students also regarded themselves with something which was less than dignity, a diluted version of self-respect. For any inadequacies in the school systems, the students blamed themselves and perpetuated a belief in their assumed inferiority, as if they didn't deserve anything better. This stunting of learning, strangling of selfhood, and pulverization of humanity at such an early age, if not curtailed, would probably be beyond redemption.
I have no idea about the public school system in Boston and neither am I qualified for such an opinion. However, it is difficult to believe that no other teacher in that system had empathy towards the students or supported Kozol during his one year in that school. It could be that such abuse was systemic and people did not want to get entangled in such causes. This book is Mr. Kozol's version of the events and it could be that he could have overstated the attitude of his fellow teachers to some extent. Without doubt, it is a shocking account of events and brings forward the inhuman prejudices and hatred that are entrenched in the hearts and minds of people even today.
Nevertheless, it is a difficult book to read, mostly because of the subject matter. Also, there are racial slurs. It is well-written and the prose is measured and poignant. I'm rating it 3.5 stars, rounded off to 4. Mr. Kozol had studied poetry and to make his class respond to the beauty of poetry, he decided to recite The Ballad of the Landlord by Langston Hughes. He found this poem not only to be moving in an obvious and immediate human way but also admirable in the sense that it found its emotion in something ordinary. As far as the view of the school goes, they found the poem objectionable as it could be interpreted as advocating defiance of authority.
The poem can be read here.
As a bonus, a couple of others by Mr. Hughes that I enjoyed from the above website.
Dream Deferred
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
The poem above is the first poem by Langston Hughes at the age of 14.
The Dream Keeper
Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamers,
Bring me all of your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.
Jonathan Kozol found himself among students in a compensatory education program who were left neglected on account of the apathy and the deep seated racial hatred of the Boston school system and its teachers. As a teacher, he could not help these children as much as he wanted to -- his hands were tied by the antiquated rules and noxious atmosphere in the school and his initial reluctance to dissent and rebellion as a new substitute staff member.
It is painful to think about young children being made to squander their most formative years sitting listlessly in crumbling buildings (a metal and glass window fell down and almost crushed a little girl), receiving frequent beatings at the slightest hint of transgression (one boy had to be admitted to a hospital), and absorbing the all-pervasive condescension reserved for their race. Thankfully, the author avoids graphic details of the needless cruelty that the children suffer but their behaviour says it all. The case of Stephen, an eight-year-old orphan whose emotional well-being and mental stability are endangered by the brutal disciplining at school and even in his adopted mother's home, is particularly heartbreaking. He is lagging developmentally and is trying to hold on to his last shreds of dignity by hiding his suffering in the face of such alarming bitterness where his creativity is stifled and his self-respect is trampled upon. Deprived of love and affection from those around him, he is so hungry for the tiniest morsel of attention that he tries to get it in every way possible, as a desperate validation of his existence. Unfortunately, his attempts are taken as gross misdemeanors which deserve punitive measures like regular beatings and even a transfer to a discipline school where the school system dumps all the children it find unteachable. Mr. Kozol laments the "waste of years, the loss of chances, the closing of avenues , the end of hopes" which such situations represent.
The Boston School Committee of that time conveniently and vehemently denied any racial segregation in schools citing that the schools only catered to the localities around them. Many of the white teachers were unsympathetic and inherently prejudiced against the black students denying them the respect that they deserved as human beings. So much so that it was forbidden to educate them about their own history as a race because to the teachers being black was a shameful and ugly thing and the students must be shielded from such degradation as long as possible. Consequently, the students also regarded themselves with something which was less than dignity, a diluted version of self-respect. For any inadequacies in the school systems, the students blamed themselves and perpetuated a belief in their assumed inferiority, as if they didn't deserve anything better. This stunting of learning, strangling of selfhood, and pulverization of humanity at such an early age, if not curtailed, would probably be beyond redemption.
I have no idea about the public school system in Boston and neither am I qualified for such an opinion. However, it is difficult to believe that no other teacher in that system had empathy towards the students or supported Kozol during his one year in that school. It could be that such abuse was systemic and people did not want to get entangled in such causes. This book is Mr. Kozol's version of the events and it could be that he could have overstated the attitude of his fellow teachers to some extent. Without doubt, it is a shocking account of events and brings forward the inhuman prejudices and hatred that are entrenched in the hearts and minds of people even today.
Nevertheless, it is a difficult book to read, mostly because of the subject matter. Also, there are racial slurs. It is well-written and the prose is measured and poignant. I'm rating it 3.5 stars, rounded off to 4. Mr. Kozol had studied poetry and to make his class respond to the beauty of poetry, he decided to recite The Ballad of the Landlord by Langston Hughes. He found this poem not only to be moving in an obvious and immediate human way but also admirable in the sense that it found its emotion in something ordinary. As far as the view of the school goes, they found the poem objectionable as it could be interpreted as advocating defiance of authority.
The poem can be read here.
As a bonus, a couple of others by Mr. Hughes that I enjoyed from the above website.
Dream Deferred
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
The poem above is the first poem by Langston Hughes at the age of 14.
The Dream Keeper
Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamers,
Bring me all of your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.
July 22, 2011
I first read this book soon after it was published, when I was a second year teacher at a public junior high school in Vallejo, CA, that had about 10% black students. I had done my intern teaching at Berkeley (CA) High School during the volatile summer of 1967, to a mixed class, about half black, half white, and mixed from the 10 stage tracking system from track 1 (one step below honors) to mentally retarded (as it was then called). This book was an eye-opener and guide in my struggles to learn how to teach.
July 11, 2015
It's hard to convey how powerful this book is.
The author, Jonathan Kozol, taught for a short time as a white teacher in a predominantly black Boston city school in the 1960s. He was ultimately fired for introducing his fourth grade students to a Langston Hughes poem called "Ballad of the Landlord" which he read in an attempt to spark his class interest in something, anything "
Kozol's first person narrative about his experience reads like Dickensian novel. The illegal but frequent beatings children received from teachers in the hidden bowels of the decaying school building. The complete lack of understanding or interest in the difficult home lives of many of these children. The psychological smashing of any spark of creativity or independence displayed by a child. And the repeated blaming of students for the shortcoming of their teachers. And these are just of the insidious ways blatant prejudice was administered on a daily basis in the city's public schools.
Living in the Boston area, I picked the book up after hearing an interview with the author on the 50th anniversary of the book's publication. I thought it would be an interesting look at the history of the Boston Schools. But it was MUCH more than I bargained for. It is a scathing indictment of an institution with deeply entrenched bigotry and cruelty and completely explains why court-ordered bussing was the only way to achieve educational parity. Beyond that it's a shameful portrait of our country during the early years of the civil rights movement. I think it should be mandatory reading in all US history classes in this country.
The author, Jonathan Kozol, taught for a short time as a white teacher in a predominantly black Boston city school in the 1960s. He was ultimately fired for introducing his fourth grade students to a Langston Hughes poem called "Ballad of the Landlord" which he read in an attempt to spark his class interest in something, anything "
Kozol's first person narrative about his experience reads like Dickensian novel. The illegal but frequent beatings children received from teachers in the hidden bowels of the decaying school building. The complete lack of understanding or interest in the difficult home lives of many of these children. The psychological smashing of any spark of creativity or independence displayed by a child. And the repeated blaming of students for the shortcoming of their teachers. And these are just of the insidious ways blatant prejudice was administered on a daily basis in the city's public schools.
Living in the Boston area, I picked the book up after hearing an interview with the author on the 50th anniversary of the book's publication. I thought it would be an interesting look at the history of the Boston Schools. But it was MUCH more than I bargained for. It is a scathing indictment of an institution with deeply entrenched bigotry and cruelty and completely explains why court-ordered bussing was the only way to achieve educational parity. Beyond that it's a shameful portrait of our country during the early years of the civil rights movement. I think it should be mandatory reading in all US history classes in this country.
December 7, 2020
This was a true story of how black students are taught and treated in the american public school system.
It was an eye opener.
It was an eye opener.
May 28, 2010
Winner of the National Book Award in 1967, Jonathan Kozol’s Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools is the story of a new teacher recruited to finish the year with a group of African-American students. It does not compare much to Boston Public, the FOX television drama created by David E. Kelley (2000-2004).
The first word of the first chapter is “Stephen,” the name of one of Kozol’s students, and roughly the first half of the book is devoted to profiles of Stephen and his friends, anecdotes from their day-to-day experiences. In a school where white teachers take minority students to the basement to hit them with a rattan, Kozol makes it clear that it’s him and his students (and eventually his students’ parents) versus “the system.” The institution is represented by the Art Teacher, the Reading Teacher, and a piece of cardboard covering a broken window. It’s allegorical: The two teachers represent all the teachers and the cardboard serves a greater purpose than keeping out the cold. It stands for torn curtains and racist curriculum and everything wrong with Kozol’s teaching environment.
Kozol sides unfailingly with students. “I came into that room knowing myself to be absolutely on their side,” he writes. “I did not go in there with even the littlest suggestion that what had been going on… was even one-fiftieth their fault” (162). The way Kozol sees it, misbehavior is the students’ way of confirming their existence in a system that does not view students, especially African-American students, as fully human; thus, Stephen’s habit of looking in a classroom mirror is not the narcissism of youth but a way for him to “check up on his existence” (7); Kozol discovers some of his students steal money from their parents; this, he says, is because they’ve had so much stolen from them in life.
Kozol uses strong language. He speaks directly about the waste of time in school: “Who is it who bears responsibility for this soul-drowning dreariness and waste of hours?… It cannot be unexpected that motivation becomes the all-important obstacle when the material is so often a diet of banality and irrelevance which it is not worth the while of a child to learn or that of a teacher to teach” (184). About the poor working environment: “All that surprised me was that every one of those schools had not been burned down yet by an outraged population when so many of them were obvious firetraps” (148). About a racist education system: “The school systems kept its unteachables out of sight and turned them into untouchables” (49). About his colleagues: “The Art Teacher did not… care anything at all about the way in which you can destroy a human being” (4). He continues about her: “The hypocrisy involved in her narrow favoritism was revealed in several ways” (152). The Mathematics Teacher: “I cannot say that I learned anything at all except how to suppress and pulverize any sparks of humanity or independence or originality in children” (14). These colleagues are generally consummate professionals – they have the “superficial trappings and the polysyllables of ‘culture’”– but Kozol villainizes them by showing how their covert racism, often characterized by “lip service to a kind of halfway liberalism,” is in many ways worse than the basement beatings executed by others.
Kozol is hard on himself. He aligns himself with the Art Teacher: “I think that [the Art Teacher:] was no more a hypocrite… than I was a hypocrite” (12). He implicates himself: “By not complaining and by not pointing it out to anyone,” he confesses, “in a sense I went along with the rest of them and accepted it as something inevitable… A friend of mine to whom I have confided some of these things has not been able to keep from criticizing me for what he thinks of as a kind of quiet collusion” (31-33). Both admissions happen early in the book. The latter half of the book, shifting from exploration of student lives to a study of classroom materials (Kozol walks us through a close-reading of a textbook and several poems), is more argumentation than narrative. When Kozol gets fired by the curriculum cops for teaching a Langston Hughes poem (“The Ballad of the Landlord”), his humility and self-deprecation die and are replaced with a serious righteousness that, given the evidence, seems warranted. He stops confessing his wrongs and qualifying his arguments. He allows his nearly-annoying earnestness to stand as a refreshing antidote to the jargon and bureaucracy surrounding (and about to collapse in on) him and all his students and his students parents.
The first word of the first chapter is “Stephen,” the name of one of Kozol’s students, and roughly the first half of the book is devoted to profiles of Stephen and his friends, anecdotes from their day-to-day experiences. In a school where white teachers take minority students to the basement to hit them with a rattan, Kozol makes it clear that it’s him and his students (and eventually his students’ parents) versus “the system.” The institution is represented by the Art Teacher, the Reading Teacher, and a piece of cardboard covering a broken window. It’s allegorical: The two teachers represent all the teachers and the cardboard serves a greater purpose than keeping out the cold. It stands for torn curtains and racist curriculum and everything wrong with Kozol’s teaching environment.
Kozol sides unfailingly with students. “I came into that room knowing myself to be absolutely on their side,” he writes. “I did not go in there with even the littlest suggestion that what had been going on… was even one-fiftieth their fault” (162). The way Kozol sees it, misbehavior is the students’ way of confirming their existence in a system that does not view students, especially African-American students, as fully human; thus, Stephen’s habit of looking in a classroom mirror is not the narcissism of youth but a way for him to “check up on his existence” (7); Kozol discovers some of his students steal money from their parents; this, he says, is because they’ve had so much stolen from them in life.
Kozol uses strong language. He speaks directly about the waste of time in school: “Who is it who bears responsibility for this soul-drowning dreariness and waste of hours?… It cannot be unexpected that motivation becomes the all-important obstacle when the material is so often a diet of banality and irrelevance which it is not worth the while of a child to learn or that of a teacher to teach” (184). About the poor working environment: “All that surprised me was that every one of those schools had not been burned down yet by an outraged population when so many of them were obvious firetraps” (148). About a racist education system: “The school systems kept its unteachables out of sight and turned them into untouchables” (49). About his colleagues: “The Art Teacher did not… care anything at all about the way in which you can destroy a human being” (4). He continues about her: “The hypocrisy involved in her narrow favoritism was revealed in several ways” (152). The Mathematics Teacher: “I cannot say that I learned anything at all except how to suppress and pulverize any sparks of humanity or independence or originality in children” (14). These colleagues are generally consummate professionals – they have the “superficial trappings and the polysyllables of ‘culture’”– but Kozol villainizes them by showing how their covert racism, often characterized by “lip service to a kind of halfway liberalism,” is in many ways worse than the basement beatings executed by others.
Kozol is hard on himself. He aligns himself with the Art Teacher: “I think that [the Art Teacher:] was no more a hypocrite… than I was a hypocrite” (12). He implicates himself: “By not complaining and by not pointing it out to anyone,” he confesses, “in a sense I went along with the rest of them and accepted it as something inevitable… A friend of mine to whom I have confided some of these things has not been able to keep from criticizing me for what he thinks of as a kind of quiet collusion” (31-33). Both admissions happen early in the book. The latter half of the book, shifting from exploration of student lives to a study of classroom materials (Kozol walks us through a close-reading of a textbook and several poems), is more argumentation than narrative. When Kozol gets fired by the curriculum cops for teaching a Langston Hughes poem (“The Ballad of the Landlord”), his humility and self-deprecation die and are replaced with a serious righteousness that, given the evidence, seems warranted. He stops confessing his wrongs and qualifying his arguments. He allows his nearly-annoying earnestness to stand as a refreshing antidote to the jargon and bureaucracy surrounding (and about to collapse in on) him and all his students and his students parents.
Read
September 5, 2007I first read this book when I was a beginning teacher. The book relates Kozel's experience teaching in the Roxbury section of Boston. The circumstances are unimaginable for this wealthy country, but he told the truth as he lived it and taught within it.
November 12, 2008
a very outrageous account of a teacher in a segregation school in Boston in the 60's. If you hear on tv that the crime rate among African Americans is very high and you are angry about it, READ THIS BOOK. there are certain things you should be much angrier about.
January 2, 2019
There is much to admire here. The prose is sharp, direct, and paints a very dark picture. It is a good description of what I might call Yankee racism, and of the Civil Rights movement at that very time, which also means some observations have not panned out. The replacement of older racist teachers (the henchmen of the story) did not improve education. They were never the root cause, and Kozol knows this. Indeed, it could be argued the reformers who did blame teachers had a shallow and neo-liberal understanding of Kozol. Sadly, the current mantra in education is to hold the teacher accountable to bizarre degrees. Nor of course did busing work. It instead created a backlash that led to further segregation, both on racial and economic lines. That Kozol did not see this is unsurprising; his empathy really only goes in one direction.
My main issue is with Kozol himself. This is a memoir, and Kozol, while hard on himself for not saying more, portrays a world where he is the truthful hero, supported by black parents, and in opposition to evil closet racists. I started to feel bad about the Reading Teacher, as the book took such a negative and pedantic view of her that I started to pity her far more than Kozol. The teachers are in no way sympathetic, and Kozol fails to understand why they do what they do. It is all just racism and incompetence, and for that, oddly dehumanizing of teachers carrying out their duties in a flawed system. One does start to see parallels with the contemporary identity left, where unlimited sympathy and understanding is reserved for the "oppressed" but nothing is granted to supposed "oppressors." Kozol is at least far less shrill. He is also very ahead of his time, defending black culture, language, actions, and history without restraint.
The other issue is that the school system acts upon the black students, robbing them of agency unless they act out, which Kozol approves of, seeing it I presume as a budding civil rights activism. The black parents are all with him, and the portrayal of black students and parents approaches caricature at times. There are some moments of humanity with the black students such as Edward and here the prose is at its best. Still, the portrayal is limited by the politics of the book, which is meant to create outrage and therefore action.
Sadly, Kozol's self-righteousness is still a feature of the left, a feature the left fails to understand as a weakness, not an asset. Teachers are still interested in pushing their agenda. In 1965 it was a kind of racism masked as concern and discipline; today it is progressive politics, Jesus (in some schools at least), or more likely simply teaching you how to take a multiple choice test at the end. Standardized testing is the admittance that we have failed. Much worse, the school system continues to fail its students, and in ways still much as Kozol, describes. I briefly worked in a black middle school; very little has changed from what I could see. In that way, this was a demoralizing read, and one I would recommend despite its flaws. I will admit, it helps that Kozol is a fan of Yeats and Hughes, and I really sympathized with his efforts to bring more interesting material to the children.
My main issue is with Kozol himself. This is a memoir, and Kozol, while hard on himself for not saying more, portrays a world where he is the truthful hero, supported by black parents, and in opposition to evil closet racists. I started to feel bad about the Reading Teacher, as the book took such a negative and pedantic view of her that I started to pity her far more than Kozol. The teachers are in no way sympathetic, and Kozol fails to understand why they do what they do. It is all just racism and incompetence, and for that, oddly dehumanizing of teachers carrying out their duties in a flawed system. One does start to see parallels with the contemporary identity left, where unlimited sympathy and understanding is reserved for the "oppressed" but nothing is granted to supposed "oppressors." Kozol is at least far less shrill. He is also very ahead of his time, defending black culture, language, actions, and history without restraint.
The other issue is that the school system acts upon the black students, robbing them of agency unless they act out, which Kozol approves of, seeing it I presume as a budding civil rights activism. The black parents are all with him, and the portrayal of black students and parents approaches caricature at times. There are some moments of humanity with the black students such as Edward and here the prose is at its best. Still, the portrayal is limited by the politics of the book, which is meant to create outrage and therefore action.
Sadly, Kozol's self-righteousness is still a feature of the left, a feature the left fails to understand as a weakness, not an asset. Teachers are still interested in pushing their agenda. In 1965 it was a kind of racism masked as concern and discipline; today it is progressive politics, Jesus (in some schools at least), or more likely simply teaching you how to take a multiple choice test at the end. Standardized testing is the admittance that we have failed. Much worse, the school system continues to fail its students, and in ways still much as Kozol, describes. I briefly worked in a black middle school; very little has changed from what I could see. In that way, this was a demoralizing read, and one I would recommend despite its flaws. I will admit, it helps that Kozol is a fan of Yeats and Hughes, and I really sympathized with his efforts to bring more interesting material to the children.
August 24, 2012
One of the best books I have ever read and probably ever will read. Life changing.
August 10, 2022
Shows over and over Boston isn't some bastion of northern enlightenment but a city that historically condemned minority students to education so sub-standard that it gave Kozol his title "Death at an Early Age" meaning thanks to their "education" these students got such a bad start in life that they never have a chance to a fulfilled person or citizen. Racism ran the gamut from teachers who thought they were fair-minded to out and out bigots who beat children in basements. Kozol doesn't cut himself slack showing how he felt there was more he could have done at various times but went along showing how a person with good intentions can still become part of an indifferent system. Kozol was fired for reading a Langston Hughes poem "Landlord" to his 4th graders... they were engaged with it as it was relatable and not something about make believe white kids living a life of leisure. Thankfully, he bucked the trend in various ways too, chief of which was writing this book. Some things are better these days like curriculum / books more reflecting the students themselves. Still, plenty needs to be improved or completely overhauled to reach true equity and for Boston to live up to its inflated sense of self / righteousness.
I'm particularly interested in buildings as I advocate for HVAC in all BPS schools (3 out of 4 lack it in 2022). I found this quote on page 31 gripping when Kozol described a window falling in on his class while he taught as illustration of how poorly maintained the buildings were (and remain):
"If anything could be done, if there were any way to get it corrected, I assumed they [admin, teachers in the building etc.] would have done it by this time. Thus, by not complaining, and by not pointing it out to anyone, in a sense I went along with the rest of them and accepted it as something inevitable. One of the most grim things about teaching in such a school and such a system is that you do not like to be an incessant barb and irritation to everybody else, so you come under a rather strong compulsion to keep quiet. But after you have been quiet for a while there is an equally strong temptation to begin to accept the conditions of your work or of the children's plight as natural. This, in a sense, is what had happened to me during that period and that, I suppose, is why I didn't say anything about the rotting window. Now one day it caved in."
I'm particularly interested in buildings as I advocate for HVAC in all BPS schools (3 out of 4 lack it in 2022). I found this quote on page 31 gripping when Kozol described a window falling in on his class while he taught as illustration of how poorly maintained the buildings were (and remain):
"If anything could be done, if there were any way to get it corrected, I assumed they [admin, teachers in the building etc.] would have done it by this time. Thus, by not complaining, and by not pointing it out to anyone, in a sense I went along with the rest of them and accepted it as something inevitable. One of the most grim things about teaching in such a school and such a system is that you do not like to be an incessant barb and irritation to everybody else, so you come under a rather strong compulsion to keep quiet. But after you have been quiet for a while there is an equally strong temptation to begin to accept the conditions of your work or of the children's plight as natural. This, in a sense, is what had happened to me during that period and that, I suppose, is why I didn't say anything about the rotting window. Now one day it caved in."
July 30, 2022
This was my choice book for AP Lang, the guidelines only saying it had to be about education or politics. I’m glad I made the choice to read this book. It was powerful and heartbreaking. Kozol’s writing was very good as well, he was able to include many quotes directly from the people involved which made everything resonate more with me. There was some slight repetitiveness but it was more of a reinforcement than overused. I might do more research surrounding the Boston School System at the time considering that the book ends when Kozol leaves and readers don’t see the aftermath or any change.
May 31, 2021
This was published in 1985. I read it a couple years later. It was a cutting edge book then and very significant. I can’t review it as to how it pertains to today’s world in education. I’ve some assumptions but don’t know if they are true or not. I was looking at someone’s list and they had this book as read and I wanted to add it to my book list because it was a book that was important to me back then.
February 21, 2024
3 E’s: engaging, educational, enlightening
February 26, 2013
Death At an Early Age was a hard book to finish, but even harder to put down.
Substitute teacher Jonathan Kozol left his mark on literature by publishing this, his memoir of a year in Boston Public Schools. I'd never even heard of it until I sought out the African American lit section of a local bookstore. So I picked it up at a whim, thinking it would offer some novel insight into my own profession and the Civil Rights era.
I came to find Death At an Early Age to be more alarming than enlightening. Reading about the deplorable conditions of Kozol's school, his tyrannical coworkers, and the sadistic treatment of black students was unsettling at best, and jaw-dropping at its lowest points. Although the book recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, I still felt aftershocks of the false 'equality' of urban school districts that echo through our society today. It's an obscene mark on our country's storied history of civil rights that experiences like Kozol's were likely not unique for young teachers in so-called integrated educational settings. One of the most troubling aspects of this book is that it takes place entirely in Boston, a city I tend to think of as integral to the United States' image as a free and just nation. One can't help but wonder, if this is how segregated New England had become, what was happening in the rest of the country?
This book is as emotional as it is educational, and it's hard not to be moved by the realities that were commonplace for black students in the Boston school children. Beating, flaccid expectations and high teacher turnover are a way of life for the students in Kozol's school. Although he runs the risk of making himself out as a martyr at the center of this turning point for civil, Kozol does so as a tribulation to telling a story worth hearing. While reading his memoir, I often found myself wondering what the other teachers (and even students) in his school would have to say about the author, but I have no reason to think Mr. Kozol exaggerated the harsh realities of a young educator. The story does not have a happy ending, but the teacher's perseverance to save his students was not spent in vain. This book is testament enough to that.
If you have an urge to peel back a still-healing wound on our public education system, don't overlook this degradation trip. Although it was difficult for me at points--I set it down several times from feeling depressed--Death At an Early Age still sounds an irresistible alarm to the injustices of our society, carried out in the name of 'protecting' our most innocent members.
Substitute teacher Jonathan Kozol left his mark on literature by publishing this, his memoir of a year in Boston Public Schools. I'd never even heard of it until I sought out the African American lit section of a local bookstore. So I picked it up at a whim, thinking it would offer some novel insight into my own profession and the Civil Rights era.
I came to find Death At an Early Age to be more alarming than enlightening. Reading about the deplorable conditions of Kozol's school, his tyrannical coworkers, and the sadistic treatment of black students was unsettling at best, and jaw-dropping at its lowest points. Although the book recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, I still felt aftershocks of the false 'equality' of urban school districts that echo through our society today. It's an obscene mark on our country's storied history of civil rights that experiences like Kozol's were likely not unique for young teachers in so-called integrated educational settings. One of the most troubling aspects of this book is that it takes place entirely in Boston, a city I tend to think of as integral to the United States' image as a free and just nation. One can't help but wonder, if this is how segregated New England had become, what was happening in the rest of the country?
This book is as emotional as it is educational, and it's hard not to be moved by the realities that were commonplace for black students in the Boston school children. Beating, flaccid expectations and high teacher turnover are a way of life for the students in Kozol's school. Although he runs the risk of making himself out as a martyr at the center of this turning point for civil, Kozol does so as a tribulation to telling a story worth hearing. While reading his memoir, I often found myself wondering what the other teachers (and even students) in his school would have to say about the author, but I have no reason to think Mr. Kozol exaggerated the harsh realities of a young educator. The story does not have a happy ending, but the teacher's perseverance to save his students was not spent in vain. This book is testament enough to that.
If you have an urge to peel back a still-healing wound on our public education system, don't overlook this degradation trip. Although it was difficult for me at points--I set it down several times from feeling depressed--Death At an Early Age still sounds an irresistible alarm to the injustices of our society, carried out in the name of 'protecting' our most innocent members.
January 8, 2012
I read this book as part of my teacher-training curriculum when pursuing my bachelor's degree in education. It relates the story of a young teacher's first year in the educational system in the late 60s in the inner-city schools of Boston, and as such it focuses a great deal on racial discrimination, bigotry from teachers, administrators, and politicians, and the recalcitrance with which the same individuals rebelled against desegregation.
The book details the horrific conditions that poor black children had to suffer through in their schools; they literally did not have enough seats or classrooms, so that teachers had to teach 30+ student classes at opposite ends of a single auditorium, yelling over each other in an attempt to be heard. It is as if the school system anticipates (and hopes for) the loss of a huge percentage of its students, as they simply do not even have room (in terms of desks and other supplies) for the number of children that actually attend classes.
This is a very depressing book, but it is a great read. If anyone thinks that we have graduated beyond the racial prejudice, inequity, and injustice shown in this book, they should also read Kozol's later work, Savage Inequalities (written three decades after this one); it points out that desegregation really didn't take place at all, except that it allowed a little bit of admixture between poor blacks and poor whites; rich whites are always segregated, always given better opportunities, and as such, have much more chance at success than those from less well-equipped schools.
The book details the horrific conditions that poor black children had to suffer through in their schools; they literally did not have enough seats or classrooms, so that teachers had to teach 30+ student classes at opposite ends of a single auditorium, yelling over each other in an attempt to be heard. It is as if the school system anticipates (and hopes for) the loss of a huge percentage of its students, as they simply do not even have room (in terms of desks and other supplies) for the number of children that actually attend classes.
This is a very depressing book, but it is a great read. If anyone thinks that we have graduated beyond the racial prejudice, inequity, and injustice shown in this book, they should also read Kozol's later work, Savage Inequalities (written three decades after this one); it points out that desegregation really didn't take place at all, except that it allowed a little bit of admixture between poor blacks and poor whites; rich whites are always segregated, always given better opportunities, and as such, have much more chance at success than those from less well-equipped schools.
December 21, 2011
Few books I've read were this shocking, angering and horrifying. Kozol paints a bleak and tragic portrait of a segregated Boston public school in the mid '60s. It's easy to approach this sort of material with a "that was a long time ago, things have changed" attitude. In this case, simply put, not much has changed. The Harvard Civil Rights Project has stated that the United States is twelve years into a process of resegregation. The inner city schools today are still, in many ways, perpetuating a failed educational model. The common argument today, which Kozol alludes to, as it was the same argument made in the '60s, is that the root problem of academic failure rests with the home life of inner city students. That Kozol dismisses this notion completely, I have to take issue with. But I would argue that the problem does not lay solely with parenting and that not all inner city parents are neglectful bums or abusive tyrants. The effect of schooling on children is an issue worth serious consideration and exploration. Needless to say, I highly recommend this bold and unflinching survey of the inner city school. It should be required reading for anyone who takes their citizenship and civic responsibility seriously.
June 3, 2008
I read this book when it first came out. I was appalled by the conditions he described in the Boston public school in which he taught, but not surprised, The poor children have always been denied decent funding for education. In a state of the State address to the Georgia legislature, then-governor Roy Barnes described the Hope Scholarship program as, "my anti-crime bill." Too bad more politicians don't speak out on the close knit connections between poverty, second-class education, and crime. Kozol speaks to these issues loudly and clearly.
Until the economically disadvantaged minority children in this country receive the same benefits from the education tax dollar as the upper and upper-middle class children, this book will remain a relevant, heart-breaking volume of truth.
Until the economically disadvantaged minority children in this country receive the same benefits from the education tax dollar as the upper and upper-middle class children, this book will remain a relevant, heart-breaking volume of truth.
November 16, 2007
I read this when I was pretty depressed about the nature of society. This, along with pedagogy of the oppressed, made me think that any kind of progressive movement must be bottom up. It must be support by the people it is "helping."
Kozol's description of the little girl eating lead paint chips also made me cringed. I remember waking up in my dorm room 3am, pacing around the halls of my residence, wondering about what kind of world I lived in.
Kozol's description of the little girl eating lead paint chips also made me cringed. I remember waking up in my dorm room 3am, pacing around the halls of my residence, wondering about what kind of world I lived in.
February 3, 2008
Disturbing in that when people read this they'll think "Oh, but that was in the 60s. This stuff doesn't happen in schools anymore." I identified so many similarities between the school Kozol describes and the school district in which I teach. Huge disparities and hugely depressing, but important for people to read. (Though honestly I'll have to wait to read any more by him until this summer when the promise of the coming school year helps negate his sobering observations.)
June 22, 2012
A depressing true story of the absolute decrepitude of the Boston school System in 1965, where black students were warehoused in condemnable buildings with no materials, no learning, hostile racist teachers, and no hope for the future, where their entire psyches were destroyed before they ever had a chance, preordained to fail by the system. Intolerable. If I want to go out and riot after reading it, I cannot imagine how awful it was to live it.
April 13, 2008
LOVED THIS BOOK. Kozol's account of his first few years as a teacher in an underfunded school in Boston. This book made me cry on the train because the scenes Kozol described (kids being dehumanized, ignored, abused, by the people who were supposed to love and care for them and help them succeed) felt so real and so unjust. Highly recommended for teachers and Bostonians.
July 20, 2008
jonathan kozol is definitely one of my heroes. this book was about inadequacies in the inner city boston schools in the 60's. the sad part is that not much has changed since then. inner city schools still suffer through the same problems. everyone should read this book.
March 2, 2016
As always, Mr. Kozol does an amazingly articulate job of bringing issues in our educational systems to light. The sad thing is that the issues he so eloquently discusses in 1965 are still many of the same issues I as a teacher am struggling with today in 2010.
December 1, 2008
One of the landmark books of any young person coming of age in the late sixties.
February 22, 2023
As a (white) teacher educator in New York State, I read and assigned Kozol books focused on New York City schools. They were painful and enlightening, sometimes reminding me of things I had done out of ignorance or insensitivity. I admit to feeling bad about some of my actions (as I should!) but more often I was inspired to be and do better, to help improve schools, to encourage the teachers in my courses to be the best teachers they can be for all their students.
When I moved to Boston recently, I felt compelled to read Death at an Early Age, to understand the sad history of the Boston Public Schools. (BPS are still struggling.) The accounts were heart-wrenching. While most states have banned corporal punishment in public schools (but not private schools!), I knew of teachers and administrators being insensitive and sometimes emotionally abusive to students who struggle, even in well-funded schools and regardless of students' race. (Social class was another matter.)
In the spring of 1965, after 6 months as a substitute teacher in Roxbury (part of Boston), Jonathan Kozol was fired - for reading his 4th graders a poem by Langston Hughes. Kozol had, undoubtedly, made teachers and administrators uncomfortable with his questions about their attitudes and his failure to fall in line. But it was reading Langston Hughes' "Ballad of the Landlord" that got him fired, because a) it was not in the official Course of Study, and b) "no poem by any Negro author can be considered permissible if it involves suffering."
The concerns and rationalizations that ensued in 1965 are frightenly similar to events in 2023: Florida's ban on the AP course on African-American studies and outrage about "teaching children critical race theory" (in quotes because few of the outraged actually know what CRT is). Yes, events in Death at an Early Age are nearly 60 years old but, unfortunately, the issues remain in today's schools. I recommend it to anyone concerned about the state of American education.
When I moved to Boston recently, I felt compelled to read Death at an Early Age, to understand the sad history of the Boston Public Schools. (BPS are still struggling.) The accounts were heart-wrenching. While most states have banned corporal punishment in public schools (but not private schools!), I knew of teachers and administrators being insensitive and sometimes emotionally abusive to students who struggle, even in well-funded schools and regardless of students' race. (Social class was another matter.)
In the spring of 1965, after 6 months as a substitute teacher in Roxbury (part of Boston), Jonathan Kozol was fired - for reading his 4th graders a poem by Langston Hughes. Kozol had, undoubtedly, made teachers and administrators uncomfortable with his questions about their attitudes and his failure to fall in line. But it was reading Langston Hughes' "Ballad of the Landlord" that got him fired, because a) it was not in the official Course of Study, and b) "no poem by any Negro author can be considered permissible if it involves suffering."
The concerns and rationalizations that ensued in 1965 are frightenly similar to events in 2023: Florida's ban on the AP course on African-American studies and outrage about "teaching children critical race theory" (in quotes because few of the outraged actually know what CRT is). Yes, events in Death at an Early Age are nearly 60 years old but, unfortunately, the issues remain in today's schools. I recommend it to anyone concerned about the state of American education.
November 11, 2018
Horrifying and heart-breaking account of the author's year as a teacher in the Boston Public Schools in 1964-65. The school conditions and the treatment of the African-American children are appalling. The author was fired for not following the proper course of study and for bringing in the poem "Ballad of the Landlord" by Langston Hughes for the children to read. A member of the Boston School Committee said "We have no inferior education in our schools. What we have been getting is an inferior type of student." That basically sums up how the black children were treated.
April 19, 2020
The book was written in 1967 about segregated public schools and a teacher fired for teaching Langston Hughes - Ballard of the Landlord. Lots of take aways about racism and white paternalism that are relevant today as in 1967. Of live to have a reading partner on this to have absorbed the brutality, hopelessness at parts with the organizing, resilience of others.
November 10, 2021
1965..and still relevant!
So horribly wrong that there are still schools (and humans) etc. in the world similar to those in this book.
The times are changing..yet some humans don't.
A very very good book.
So horribly wrong that there are still schools (and humans) etc. in the world similar to those in this book.
The times are changing..yet some humans don't.
A very very good book.
February 20, 2019
I read this many years ago and loved it.
October 9, 2019
Reread this one for the first time in about ten years. Still heartbreaking. Still relevant, even though it was first published more than fifty years ago.
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