Now, That’s Commitment

Jonathan Kozol is always great to read when your energy is running low and you need a reminder of what a noble venture education is.

Yesterday at The Huffington Post, Kozol explained why he’s fasting — it’s now Day 68 – until the Democrats get serious about fixing No Child Left Behind.

We’re a bit awestruck at his commitment, since we can’t seem to go more than two hours without wandering to the office kitchen in hopes that a co-worker put out something to snack on.  

Kozol’s blog post takes on testing, the narrowing of the curriculum, those “savage inequalities” he’s still railing against, and Ted Kennedy. And, notably, the effect of NCLB on teachers:

The real effect of No Child Left Behind is to drive away the tens of thousands of exciting and high-spirited, superbly educated teachers whom our urban districts struggle to attract into these schools. There are more remarkable young teachers like this coming into inner-city education than at any time I’ve seen in more than 40 years. The challenge isn’t to recruit them; it’s to keep them. But 50 percent of the glowing young idealists I have been recruiting from the nation’s most respected colleges and universities are throwing up their hands and giving up their jobs within three years.

When I ask them why they’ve grown demoralized, they routinely tell me it’s the feeling of continual anxiety, the sense of being in a kind of “state of siege,” as well as the pressure to conform to teaching methods that drain every bit of joy out of the hours that their children spend with them in school.

We wish Kozol luck with the fast, and a big helping of gratitude for so eloquently standing up for kids and educators.

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