Diversity in Schools
The concept of diversity in schools is supposed to ensure that students have equal and free access to educational institutions despite their race, economic or social background. It means understanding that each is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. Kozol realized that schools in the United States were not constituent in a diverse manner that the country was. He realized that many schools had students who belonged to a similar ethnicity or race, social and economic standards. He did this through investigations and fact finding to note what ailed the system.
He also found out the factor that caused the disparity in the schools. At length, his letter has been used to give recommendations on how the schools should adapt to the changing demographics in the US and achieve the diversity integrated into the schools. Although multicultural education would be ideal, a major disadvantage would be the student's families. Some families do not feel comfortable with their child or children being integrated into a diversified learning environment. Diversity and equality should be present in our education system instead of creating a caste system.Why Kozol feels diversity is essential in education.Kozol realized that students were not diverse distributed in schools. For instance, they found out that in some schools, blacks, and Hispanic student made up the large fraction of students in schools while other schools were predominantly white (Kozol 86).
This can be attributed to the fact that parents were more likely to take their children to schools that were dominated by children from their race to ensure that they were comfortable with them. It was noted that some schools had this type of segregation even when their neighborhoods were predominantly white (Kozol 86). He also points out that the same imbalance in public schools perforates to the inequity and discrimination elsewhere. He claims that though the context may vary, the parameters and the purposes remain the same. If the segregation is ended at the school level, it is arguable that the effects in the affected generation will be minimized since the desensitization will have taken a toll in the US. Diversity continues to be a phrase that is not practiced, and the idea of schools having students from different backgrounds is still shunned. The Brown case has had no significant effect on the way schooling is done in the United States. The whites and a few rich blacks enjoy lucrative education while the poor blacks and Hispanic students focus on the ever failing low-class schools that have been set aside for the minority. Kozol defines the institutes as run nearly like factories or prisons in every detail.
According to him, US Schools are relatively rapidly becoming segregated in all manner. If the desegregation is minimized, Kozol feels that the students will have a better view of their surroundings and interact well with other people in their environment (Kozol 77)The kind of diversity he is referring toKozol is concerned …
