Death at an Early Age: The Classic Indictment of Inner-City Education

276 Pages·1985·35.718 MB·English

by  Jonathan Kozol

NATIONAL BOOK
AWARD WINNER
The classic indictment
of inner-city education
AN
JIT
EARiy
U^>'
AGE
II
Author of
ILLITERATE AMERH
Preface by
ROBERT COLES
With a new EpiloguCj
bythe author
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PLUME
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PRAISE FOR JONATHAN KOZOL'S CLASSIC
BESTSELLER, DEATH AT AN EARLY AGE:
"The heartbreaking story it tells has to be read . . . Mr. Kozol
charges the Boston School Committee and the system they run
with spiritual and psychological murder. Nothing in what they
say, some of it supplied word for word in the book's notes, makes
the accusation seem excessive."—TheNew York Times
"Simple, lucid, horrifying Mr. Kozol has written a very dis-
. . .
turbing book. He is writing of the Boston Public School system,
but he could be writing of the system in almost any city in the
country."—Christian Science Monitor
"An eloquent documentary written with implacable under-
. . .
statement which does not minimize its power to reach and touch
almostanyone."—Kirkus Reviews
JONATHAN KOZOL, a Harvard graduate and Rhodes Scholar, has
taught in the public schools of Boston and Newton, Massachusetts,
and at Yale University and Trinity' College. Heis theauthorofseveral
other books on education, including Illiterate America, and has been
the recipient of fellowships from the Ford, Rockefeller, and Guggen-
heim foundations.
) )
Books byJonathan Kozol
DeathatanEarlyAge (1967)
FreeSchools (1972)
TheNightIsDark andIAmFarFromHome (1975
Children of the Revolution (1978)
PrisonersofSilence (1979
On Beinga Teacher (1981
)
IlliterateAmerica (1985)
DEATH AT
AN AGE
EARLY
The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of
Negro Children in the Boston PubHc Schools
JONATHAN KOZOL
®
A PLUME BOOK
PLUME
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Epiloguecopyright © 1985 byJonathan Kozol
Textcopyright © 1967 byJonathan Kozol
Preface by RobertColescopyright © 1967 by TheNew York Timescompany.
Reprinted by permission.
All rights reserved. For information address NewAmerican Library.
Death atan EarlyAg^wasoriginally published in a hardcoveredition by
Houghton Mifnin Company.
PORTIONSOFTHISBOOKHAVEAPPEAREDIN TheAtlantic, AND TheHarvard
EducationalReview, "balladofthelandlord" bylangstonhughesis
REPRINTEDBYPERMISSIONOFHAROLDOBERASSOCIATESINC.COPYRIGHT 1951
LANGSTONHUGHES. ^^y
REG.TRADEMARK—MARCAREGISTRADA
LibraryofCongressCatalogingin Publication Data
Kozol,Jonathan.
Death at an early age.
— —
1. Discr—imination in educ—ation Massachusetts Bos—ton. 2. Afro-Americans-
Education Massachusetts Boston. 3. Boston(Mass.) Schools. 1. Title.
LC2803.B7K6 1985 370.19'342'0974461 85-8999
ISBN 0-452-26292-5
First Plume Printing,October, 1985
8 9 10 11 12
PRINTEDINTIIEUNITEDSTATESOFAMERICA
This Book Is
Dedicated
To Ellen Jackson
L

Some day, maybe, there will exist a well-informed,
well-considered, and yet fervent public conviction
that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mu-
tilation of a child's spirit; for such mutilation un-
dercuts the life principle of trust, without which
every human act, may it feel ever so good and seem
ever so right, is prone to perversion by destructive
forms of conscientiousness.
Erik Erikson
i