This essay examines systemic inequalities in American public education, drawing on Jean Anyon's analysis of how schools reproduce socioeconomic class divisions and Jonathan Kozol's documentation of racial segregation in urban schools. Beginning with the real-life example of Principal Joe Clark at Eastside High School, the paper argues that individual motivation alone cannot overcome structural barriers. It traces how children from working-class backgrounds receive an education designed to keep them in lower-status jobs, while test-prep culture in underfunded urban schools further undermines creativity, critical thinking, and genuine academic advancement — perpetuating what Kozol calls "educational apartheid" in twenty-first century America.
In the 1989 film Lean on Me, actor Morgan Freeman portrays Joe Clark, a principal who uses tough love and unorthodox methods to turn around the failing Eastside High School. Although the screenwriters took liberties with the truth to create a more dramatic and commercially viable story, the film is rooted in fact. Joe Clark's message to his students in economically depressed Paterson, New Jersey, was no-nonsense: "If you don't succeed in life, don't blame your backgrounds. Don't blame the Establishment. Blame yourselves" (Avildsen). Such rhetoric makes for a great "stand up and cheer" moment that moviegoing audiences love. Clark did not want his students to lean on excuses, and while he was able to motivate students and bring a new work ethic and discipline to the school, the problem is far more complex.
As Anyon (1980) pointed out, the differences between schools in wealthy communities and those in poor communities have less to do with resources than with teaching methods and philosophies of education. Joe Clark recognized this and endeavored to make changes, but he was fighting a long-standing tradition of socioeconomic segregation.
Anyon argued that, beginning in elementary school, children from different economic backgrounds are prepared for "particular rungs on the social ladder." Citing work by Bernstein, Bourdieu, and Apple, Anyon pointed out that knowledge and skills leading to social power and status are made available to advantaged social groups but withheld from the working classes. In other words, children whose parents are doctors, lawyers, engineers, or other skilled and educated professionals are taught skills that will enable them to follow in their parents' footsteps. The children of the working class are offered more practical skills — such as manual and clerical skills — that will effectively keep them in the same kinds of jobs their parents hold, thus maintaining the division between managerial and working classes.
Although Anyon wrote her article more than thirty years ago, Jonathan Kozol wrote in 2005 about the ongoing segregation of urban public schools. Large public schools in cities such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles are nearly ninety percent Black or Hispanic. In Washington, D.C., that figure is 94%; in Detroit, it is 96%. These are not separate-but-equal institutions of learning. Former President George W. Bush called it "the soft bigotry of low expectations" (Kozol). The focus in many of these classrooms is performance on standardized achievement tests, so that inner-city districts can boast of dramatic academic improvements — to the detriment of creativity and independent thinking. Unfortunately, test scores are measurable and concrete, and they provide an avenue for accountability not required of schools in wealthier communities.
"Test-prep regimens" (Kozol) in schools serving low socioeconomic communities may result in higher scores, but ultimately they do a disservice to the children. It may appear that these students are closing the achievement gap between themselves and the predominantly white upper class, but they are not making real gains where it counts. These children may attend classes as part of an extended school day or school year. They may have to give up recess and so-called "extras" such as art, music, and even social sciences so they can be drilled in math and English.
They are not encouraged to become well-rounded, nor are they given opportunities to share ideas and engage in creative problem-solving — skills that are vital to college success and well-paying careers. Instead, these students are educated in lockstep and prepared only for lockstep types of jobs.
We do not like to think "apartheid education" (Kozol) is an issue in the twenty-first century United States, but unfortunately there still exists a separation among socioeconomic groups in terms of the educational advantages children do or do not receive. The division among socioeconomic groups is also a racial division, and one that will continue to exist unless Americans demand "more than litigation, more than legislation, and much more than resolutions introduced by members of Congress…" (Kozol).
"Drill-focused schooling undermines creativity and college readiness"
Kozol, Jonathan. "Still Separate, Still Unequal: America's Educational Apartheid." Harper's Magazine 311.1864 (2005): n. page. Print.
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