The Children in Room E4: American Education on Trial [Hardcover]

Susan Eaton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 156512488X | ISBN-13: 978-1565124882 | Publication Date: January 19, 2007

With our nation's urban schools growing more segregated every year, Susan Eaton set out to see whether separate can ever really be equal. An award-winning journalist, Eaton spent four years at Simpson-Waverly Elementary School, an all-minority school in Hartford, Connecticut. Located in the poorest city in the wealthiest state in the nation, it is a glaring example of the great racial and economic divide found in almost every major urban center across the country.

The Children in Room E4 is the compelling story of one student, one classroom, and one indomitable teacher, Ms. Luddy. In the midst of Band-Aid reforms and hotshot superintendents with empty promises, drug dealers and street gangs, Ms. Luddy's star student, Jeremy, and his fellow classmates face tremendous challenges both inside and outside of a school cut off from mainstream America.

Meanwhile, across town, a team of civil rights lawyers fight an intrepid battle to end the de facto segregation that beleaguers Jeremy's school and hundreds of others across America.

From inside the classroom and the courtroom, Eaton reveals the unsettling truths about an education system that leaves millions of children behind and gives voice to those who strive against overwhelming odds for a better future.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The separate but equal doctrine may have been repudiated by the Supreme Court, but as Eaton cogently demonstrates in this stirring and sobering account of the school system in inner-city Hartford, Conn., major educational inequality still exists in many inner-city schools. Eaton chronicles the progress of Sheff v. O'Neill, a case brought against the state in 1989, charging that school districts in Hartford and its environs were rigidly drawn to ensure segregation of poor and minority students. By encapsulating these students in racially isolated, underfunded schools, the state has created a self-perpetuating cycle of poverty and substandard academic achievement. A graceful and fluent writer, Eaton reviews the circumstances in which local and state politics allowed this situation to arise and worsen over time. She follows the inception and progress of the court case, creating suspense about its outcome. (Though the case was decided in favor of the plaintiffs, appeals are still pending after 18 years, since the state has failed to meet its mandated goals.) As long as there is racial isolation, Eaton convincingly demonstrates, schools will not improve and students will be denied the chance to learn at the same rate as their suburban neighbors, thereby impeding their chances to improve their lives and their futures. By bringing this situation to light, she has significantly articulated the problems that challenge politicians, school boards and concerned citizens. (Jan. 19)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Eaton, a former journalist who followed an 18-year-long lawsuit involving the school district of Hartford, Connecticut, brings to life all of the complex social issues in the separate-but-equal debate that has roiled the nation since Brown v. Board of Education. Eaton focuses on a dedicated teacher and the students in Room E4 of the Simpson-Waverly Elementary School, all struggling to overcome the inequities that leave the children without adequate supplies, courses, and services to get a decent education in a decaying town, one of the nation's poorest, surrounded by wealthy suburbs. The teacher, Ms. Luddy, pushes her students, from the brightest to the most challenged, to meet the marks set for student achievement under No Child Left Behind, knowing that the school has little of the resources necessary to help the children achieve. As Eaton details the day-to-day struggle in the classroom, she chronicles the courtroom battle waged by the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union to equalize the balance between the poor black and Puerto Rican students in the city and the more privileged students in the suburbs. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books (January 19, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156512488X
• ISBN-13: 978-1565124882
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Well-Researched and Compelling Book, February 11, 2007

By 

Meg (New Hampshire, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Children in Room E4: American Education on Trial (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book. It describes the history of segregated schooling in Hartford CT. The book follows the legal case of Sheff vs. O'Neil, the history of social and government programs that led to residential segregation, and the compelling story of a class of inner city schoolchildren (and one bright, charming child in particular) and their dedicated teacher. The treatment of the issue is thorough and nuanced. The failure of government and the courts to meet the needs of these school children is heartbreaking. At the same time the book is hopeful, and demonstrates how integration can easily make a huge difference in the lives of poor children. The book was impressive in its assertion of integration as a moral as well as educational issue.
The stories make the book easy to follow and quite engaging, yet it is filled with solid research. I think this book should be required reading for policy makers and educators at all levels as well as anyone concerned with the future of public education and the type of society we will live in.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important book, March 5, 2007

By 

J. Holme (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Children in Room E4: American Education on Trial (Hardcover)

Through a beautifully constructed narrative, Eaton poses one of the most important educational questions of our time: can we really "fix" urban schools without addressing the underlying historical and social roots of educational failure? A thoughtful book that draws on careful research, rigorous documentation, and graceful story telling, Eaton's book is a must read for anyone who cares about the future of children in urban schools.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Eye-Opener, April 18, 2007

By 

M. Bell (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Children in Room E4: American Education on Trial (Hardcover)

Susan Eaton has produced an exceptional, deeply researched book. It's by no means without an agenda, but it's no Swiftian polemic, something to which a wealth of footnotes and references will attest.

Eaton grabs you by the wrist, pulling you through the torturous folds of the Sheff v O'Neill court case. She forces the ugly machinations of a typical large-city public school system into the fore, giving a vivid account of the harsh inequity of Connecticut schools.

Eaton makes a compelling argument against district boundaries, with their rigid, segregating forces. She tells of an entrenched system of De Facto segregation, arisen over the past fifty years, here to stay--unless, of course, the slumbering giants (our public schools) wake up to their own mistakes. They did in 1954, when Brown forced them. Perhaps they will again.

Every school district board member should keep this book on their desk.