(Blog 2) "Amazing Grace" by Jonathan Kozol

QUOTES

1. "By and large, the words of the children in the streets and schools and houses that surround St. Ann's more than justify the grimness in the words of journalists who have described the area" (Kozol 4).

     This quote immediately got my attention. This article was very blatant and shocking. It was sad and hard to read for me. Though it is a harsh reality, I think that this point is harsher than the author needed to make it. He is justifying authors for shaming poor children. No matter the income or what they are wearing, they are still human. No one should be able to talk down on people's appearances or incomes. I know it is important to get people to realize how bad poverty affects people, but we do not need to be rude in the process. We should not focus on how they look, but rather how we could help. 

2. "There are children in the poorest, most abandoned places who, despite the miseries and poisons that the world has pumped into their lives, seem, when you first meet them, to be cheerful anyway" (Kozol 6).

     This really is an eye opening quote. It shows how strong children can be. They always see the best in life, and are able to stay positive. Even when they have to deal with things much worse than a child should have to, they are able to keep their childhood innocence. They can always see the good in the world, even when dealing when family illnesses all around them. The author even states that every child knows someone who has died of AIDS. I think that this is a powerful quote for the author's main point. It almost makes you wonder if we should be the ones learning from children. 

3. "At 96th Street, all of the other white people leave the car I'm in, but several black and Hispanic women, two or whom are in maids' uniforms, come in and sit together on a seat beside me" (Kozol 17).

     The child poverty statistics in New York are extremely shocking. It gets even more upsetting when you look at the other factors behind these statistics, such as race or gender. The majority of children are living in poverty, under horrible conditions. There are so many descriptive quotes in this article, and almost all of the tragic scenes involve people of color. It was shocking to read about a world still so segregated to this day. 

Question: We know the statistics of children living in poverty, but what can we do to help? How can we bring more awareness to the issue and raise the funds to get parent's needed medication or necessary clothes for their children? In a perfect world, you could say something such as equaling out everyone's income. But realistically, is there a solution that we as a society could do to prevent this? Can teachers help in any way?