Jonathan Kozol

Jonathan Kozol ( born September 5, 1936 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American non-fiction author, educator and activist who was known for his books on public education in the United States.

Life

Kozol visited in 1954, the Noble and Greenough School, and got his degree from Harvard University summa cum laude in 1958 in English literature. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford for the Magdalen College. However, instead of the scholarship he went to Paris to study there from experienced authors such as William Styron and Richard Wright writing. After his return, he was hired as a tutor for children in Roxbury. Soon after, he took a job as a teacher in the Boston Public Schools. There, however, he was dismissed because he had discussed a poem by Langston Hughes. This experience Kozol described later in his book Death at an Early Age, which appeared in 1967 and a year later was awarded the National Book Award. After his release, he took a job at the Newton Public Schools and taught there for several years before he devoted himself entirely to his work as a writer and activist.

Kozol is a supporter of the American civil rights movement and is committed to social justice, particularly with regard to education. His books, which are usually published in large editions, reflect these beliefs strongly. At Kozol various scholarships were awarded, to include the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Kozol is currently working on the editorial board of the Greater Good Magazine, published by Good Science Center of the University of California, Berkeley.

Works (selection)

  • Free schools. Boston in 1972, Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0395136067th
  • The night is dark and I am far from home. Boston, 1975, Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0395207274th
  • Rachel and her children: homeless families in America. New York, 1988, Crown Publishers, ISBN 051756730X.
  • Savage inequalities: children in America's schools. New York, 1991, Crown Publishers, ISBN 051758221X.
  • Amazing grace: the lives of children and the conscience of a nation. New York in 1995, Crown Publishers, ISBN 0,517,799,995th
  • Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the years of hope. New York in 1995, Crown Publishers, ISBN 051770000X.
  • The shame of the nation: the restoration of apartheid schooling in America. New York in 2005, Crown Publishers, ISBN 1,400,052,440th
  • Letters to a young teacher. New York in 2007, Crown Publishers, ISBN 0307393712th
Roxbury (Boston) Integrated Authority File
449466
de