Jonathan Kozol's purpose in Savage Inequalities is to make people aware of the inequalities of the education system in different parts of the country. He accomplishes this purpose effectively through the use of appeals, such as ethos, pathos, and logos. Jonathan writes this book showing how bad different places around the world are financially and educationally. In East St. Louis there is the financial and community/environmental problems like not having garbage collection transporting hazardous waste, how useless the government body, or more importantly how there is not a good, sufficient amount of qualified teachers. The reason he talks about this is because although every city has there problems there is an absurd amount of problems …show more content…
The first school he went to first he says is located inside an old skating rink! He tells us this to show us how the schools were not made properly in a appropriately designated area for students. The next public school he goes to he says that it was very crowded. He then discusses the insufficient money income of the two public schools he visited compared to another school he visited in River dale. River dale is a rich area with a bunch if expensive houses sou rounding it. Jonathan finds out that in the first two schools he visited, they get six thousand dollars per student, but in the third public school, located in River dale, gets eleven thousand dollars per student. This is because in New York the unfairly divided the amount of money provided to the schools depending on the value of houses in that area, so basically if there are wealthy houses then the school is wealthy but if not then the school is …show more content…
For example he would discuss the stats of percentage of black kids in a school or Latino kids. He would also provides stats about how many of the students of schools schools in poverty would graduate or go to college. Jonathan appeals to pathos because he grabs our emotions by telling the stories of the kids in the low level schools. For example he mentions in the fourth paragraph that schools in Camden do not have windows, ceilings, or working fire alarms. These students are not only suffering financially but also physically because the can not even receive medical treatment. He really grabs our attention when he says that the neighboring area children are doing just fine, so these kids see how they are not worth the money to help keep them going when the other kids are. We believe everything he says and take it to heart because he gained his credibility by mentioning that he himself was an educator. He was a teacher at an inner city middle school. He talked about how even when he was a teacher that he could not even have a classroom for the kids because there was no funding. He also uses ethos by telling us that he took time off work to go around the world going to inner city schools, interviewing people getting the dirty truth in how the education system really
The authors use of pathos in the essay is well planned and is used effectively. The see proof, the reader would have to look no further than the title of the essay: The Logic of Stupid Poor People. The word ‘stupid’ can be seen as a strong word towards someone or a group of people which stirs up emotion into some readers before they even start reading. It grabs interests and makes people want to hear what she has to say. When the author recalls of her past of being raised in a poor family, the author could also be using her stories to make the reader feel sympathy for her and understand the pressure that poor people are put under for them to be able to be considered for certain benefits and help in general. Another example of the author trying to appeal to the readers emotional side was how she concludes the essay with disregarding and opinions others have about the choice of poor people if they were not poor themselves. She states, “You have no idea what you would do if
In Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol describes the conditions of several of America's public schools. Kozol visited schools in neighborhoods and found that there was a wide disparity in the conditions between the schools in the poorest inner-city communities and schools in the wealthier suburban communities. How can there be such huge differences within the public school system of a country, which claims to provide equal opportunity for all? It becomes obvious to Kozol that many poor children begin their young lives with an education that is far inferior to that of the children who grow up in wealthier communities. Savage Inequalities provides strong evidence of the national
Introduction: As a well accomplished writer, activist, and educator, Jonathan Kozol has devoted his life to the challenge of providing equal education to every child in our public schools.
He uses pathos by expanding on his earlier question about the personal meaning of the world by reminding the children of the world around them. The teacher evokes the kids to think about what it is that the world expects of them. Asking one child specifically, he receives the answer, “nothing.” Admitting this is a correct answer, Simonet reminds the kids that even though they are stuck in the seventh grade, there is an entire world outside of their own happening around them. Pathos used in his question, “...what if on the the day you’re free, you haven’t prepared, you’re not ready, you look around you and you don’t like what the world is.
Chief Joseph successfully utilizes pathos in the sense of him making the audience feel awful for what him and tribe has had to go through. He talks about the most vulnerable people, children, saying, “The little children are freezing to death.” He knows that the children ran away from all of the adults that were older than them, or at least the ones still alive and knew that they probably would not live since it was freezing outside and there was no food or shelter. It makes the reader sympathize with Chief Joseph and share his sorrow. Chief knows that the little children are freezing and starving to death. He says, “ My heart is sick and sad”, Chief’s heart is aching for all of what he has seen and been through. This helps describe his emotions, by telling us how he
Kozol also shows us letters he has received from young elementary school children trying to understand why they do not have the same luxuries other children in wealthier school districts have, and why they do not have basic needs such as toiletries. Pathos is used within this essay to convey the sorrow of these students’ situations. For example, when he speaks of a letter written by an eight year old girl named Elizabeth, “It is not fair that other kids have a garden and new things. But we don’t have that.” (Kozol 206) There is a deep amount of sadness from the tone of this little girl’s letter, which me feel empathy for this
He discusses the school system in Anacostia, which is a school district in D.C., and is very similar to the schools previously mentioned. The cafeteria is in a basement, which is often flooded and has rats. Many of the school children, as young as 8 years old, work for drug dealers from New York City. The young girls who go to school here usually end up pregnant and single because the young men either die early, get arrested, or join the military as a way out of the neighborhood. Kozol uses these poor neighborhoods to describe what he calls the “foundation program”. He simplifies it into three basic parts to describe how these schools end up getting money. First, local taxes are the basic funding for public schools. These are taxes placed on homes in the surrounding area of a school district. Second, the wealthy districts have minimal taxation but still have adequate school systems. Meanwhile, less affluent school districts have much higher taxes to make up for property values but still have inadequate school systems. Lastly, the state provides enough funds for poor districts to have the same standards as wealthier neighborhoods. However, the foundation program doesn’t always work because sometimes the lines get blurred on who gets what money and
spent about $8,000 yearly on the education of a third-grade child in a New York City public
In chapter one and two Noguera talks about how urban schools are failing and how there is educational and achievement gaps. Noguera talks about Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and San Francisco and uses examples from these cities to show readers how poverty, influence, and lack of support impacts children 's educations. Noguera provided a very good chart on pg. 29 in the book. The chart shows the economic profile of all four cities in
Gordon Marino uses appeal to the audience’s emotions, which is a genuine introduction to pathos. His use of pathos begins with Gordon Marino speaking of his upbringing. Marino “grew up in New Jersey in a household where fights between his mother and father regularly escalated into violence” (Chin). He was not a good student and became a discipline problem, being “kicked out” of almost every school he attended. Another good example of pathos is the author’s ability to reach out to the underprivileged.
In the article entitled, A Tale of Two Schools: How Poor Children Are Lost to the World, by Jonathan Kozol, the writer is comparing the differences between New Trier High School, a school in Illinois that’s nestled in an affluent neighborhood against Du Sable High School, a school situated in an impoverished neighborhood that has 100% African American student in attendance. The article sadden and confirms things that myself and many others are already aware of, but has not been able to change. Schools located within the poor communities are
Pathos is used very effectively in Seth Davis’s article. By using pathos he is helping to expose the purpose of the article in a way that you wouldn’t think of before. Davis states “As the father of three children under the age of eight, I can only pray that someone “exploits” my sons someday
In the writing Fremont High School by Jonathan Kozol he discusses the reality of urban schools and how they are unable to obtain the proper education. At Fremont High School children are not always able to eat during their lunch period, the proper education needed for college is not obtained, the school reflects institutional discrimination, and the building is overcrowded limiting course offerings for children.
Pathos appeals to the reader’s emotions by using emotional stories and imagery. Pathos strategies are often used to grab and hold the reader’s attention. Emotional or personal stories give the reader an opportunity to emotionally relate to the story, and allows them to be emotionally connected. An emotionally connected reader is more interested in the story that a reader who is not emotionally connected.
Kozol’s main argument is that public education should be free and equal to people of all economic classes. Kozol believes that children from poor families are cheated out of a future by unequipped, understaffed and under funded schools in the United State’s inner cities and less affluent suburbs. The majority of these children are non-white, and living amongst poverty and crime. Kozol argues about the unfair standards we expect these underprivileged children to rise to. Children in these poor areas are being compared to children in affluent areas where the quality of their education is much higher. Kozol asks how these children will succeed in today’s world if they are not given the same opportunities as affluent schools give their children. Kozol believes that by depriving our poorer children of their basic needs we are forcing them into lives of crime, poverty and a never-ending cycle of inequalities in education. Kozol stresses that these students must be taught that “savage inequalities” do not have to exist between them and students in more affluent schools, and that all children are entitled to an equal education.