Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope [Paperback]

Jonathan Kozol (Author)

Book Description

Jonathan Kozol's books have become touchstones of the American conscience.  In his most personal and optimistic book to date, Jonathan returns to the South Bronx to spend another four years with the children who have come to be his friends at P.S. 30 and St. Ann's.  A fascinating narrative of daily urban life seem through the eyes of children, Ordinary Resurrections gives the human face to Northern segregation and provides a stirring testimony to the courage and resilience of the young.

Yet another classic of unblinking social observation from one of the finest writers ever to work in the genre, Ordinary Resurrections is a piercing discernment of right and wrong, of hope and despair -- from our nations's corridors of power to its poorest city streets.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Stepping back from his 30-year attack on the inequalities of education, Jonathan Kozol allows the children to speak for themselves in Ordinary Resurrections. These are the schoolchildren of South Bronx's most dismal neighborhood, Mott Haven, where social struggles with poverty and imprisoned fathers rate just under AIDS and asthma as the greatest threats to young lives. Yet, Kozol marvels, despair and bitterness don't come to mind when you meet 10-year-olds like Ariel, who "skips through life" and displays a healing tenderness to others at the church afterschool program that has become a living laboratory of sorts for Kozol since he wrote Savage Inequalities in 1996. This is "not the land of bad statistics but the land of licorice sticks and long division, candy bars and pencil sets," he writes. In recording conversations between these kids and each other, their teachers, caretakers, parents, and even himself, Kozol manages to move the adults to the periphery in order to let the children teach. There is no government data, no research conclusions, only a sense of hope and wonder at the resiliency of the young.

Kozol readily admits that he's due for a reflective moment. In his 60s, living alone, his parents seriously ill, he seeks safety in surrounding himself with children. He confesses that he's not a religious man, yet he finds himself overcoming his awkwardness with prayer, even bowing his head with the children at times. His writing in this moving account is among his most eloquent, as when he describes the gentle way in which a teacher tugs for the attention of a dreamy first-grader as if carefully unwrapping a small package that may be breakable. He captures the rhythm of the exchanges between teacher and student in a way that practically whispers to the reader. Ultimately, this is a book about healing that reveals more about the lives of children in poor neighborhoods--and Kozol--than any of his prizewinning books to date. --Jodi Mailander Farrell --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

A persistent voice of conscience, Kozol poses the question: do we want our schools to remain segregated and unequal? The National Book Award-winning education activist revisits Mott Haven, a poverty-stricken section of the South Bronx that was the setting for his two previous books, Amazing Grace and Savage Inequalities. The tone here is more optimistic, partly because his extended conversations and interactions with children take place not only at public elementary schools, but also at a supportive after-school center run by St. Ann's Church, a neighborhood Episcopalian congregation that reaches out to the hungry and homeless. Ranging in age from six to 12, all of the children in Kozol's empathetic, leisurely portraits are black or Hispanic; some know hunger; many have lost at least one relative to AIDS; a large number of them see their fathers only when they visit them in prison. Many have asthma or other severe respiratory problems, which Kozol blames on the high density of garbage facilities in the area and on a waste incinerator that was not shut down until 1998 after protests by community activists, environmentalists and doctors. His sensitive profiles highlight these kids' resilience, quiet tenacity, eagerness to learn and high spirits, as well as the teachers' remarkable dedication despite sharp cutbacks in personnel and services; overcrowded, decaying buildings; and crime-riddled streets. Yet as Kozol makes piercingly clear, the students' "ordinary resurrections" can only go so far amid what he calls "apartheid education," a racially and economically segregated school system that in effect assigns disadvantaged children to constricted destinies. Major ad/promo; 11-city author tour. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1 edition (February 20, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060956453
• ISBN-13: 978-0060956455
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #23 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Psychology

More About the Author

Jonathan Kozol has been awarded the National Book Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Award. His book Savage Inequalities was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and became a national bestseller.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ordinary Resurrections: Extraordinary Victories, June 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ordinary Resurrections (Hardcover)

Jonathan Kozol, author of Ordinary Resurrections, was a teacher in the 1960's until, legend has it, he was fired for reading a Langston Hughes poem to his students in inner-city Boston. Since his forced departure from the classroom, Kozol has been a student of public education, focusing on the inequities of quality of education between the haves and the have-nots. His books include: Death at an Early Age; The Night is Dark and I am far From Home; Rachel and her Children; Savage Inequalities; and Amazing Graces.

Kozol describes his current work:

"This is a book about a group of children whom I've come to know during their early years of life, not in the infant years but in the ones just after, when they start to go to school and poke around into the world and figure out what possibilities for hope and happiness it holds. Most of these children live within a section of the South Bronx called Mott Haven which, for much of the past decade, was the nation's epicenter for the plague of pediatric and maternal AIDS and remains one of the centers of an epidemic of adult and pediatric asthma that has swept across the inner-city populations of our nation in these years."

At the end of the book's introduction, Kozol says: "I'm grateful to the priest and congregation of St. Ann's (Church - of Morrisania - Episcopalian) for giving me the privilege to share the lives of children here...But most of all I'm grateful to the children, who have been so kind and generous to me, as they have been to many people who do nothing to deserve their loyalty and love, which aren't for sale and never can be earned, and who, with bashful voices, tiny fingers, sometimes unintended humor, and wise hearts, illuminate the lives of everyone who know them."

Kozol followed the children of P.(ublic) S.(chool) 30 and the eighty children who participate St. Ann's after school program for two years. Their stories and the stories of their parents, teachers and caretakers are anything but ordinary. These children will crawl right into your heart and take up residence. It's been a long time since a book has chronicled so many real-life miracles performed on a daily basis by ordinary people who happen to posses extraordinary compassion, kindness and caring.

I challenge anyone who reads Ordinary Resurrections to remain unmoved by Pineapple's brashness, Elio's false bravado, Ariel's insight, Mother Martha (St. Ann's priest) and her dog, or Katrice's adroitness in overseeing the church's kitchen. Some of the stories are uplifting; some will break your heart.

Although the book drags a bit in the middle when Kozol attempts to explain educational philosophies in laymen's terms, he never leaves the children long enough to make the intellectual content too boring.

If there is justice for Kozol and the children of Mott Haven, this should garner a lot of attention and win awards. Words like Pulitzer, Nobel, and National Book Award will fit nicely behind the title. Ordinary Resurrections should be required reading for all teachers and the rest of the human race, too. It's that good.

Kudos to Kozol and his kids. They deserve every good thing in life!

Terry Mathews, Reviewer

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book, inspiring and very sad at the same time, May 24, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ordinary Resurrections (Hardcover)

I think it's very telling that Jonathan Kovol is friends withFred Rogers (one of my heroes) and talks about that in this book, ashis writing reminds me of how Mister Rogers talks---his extremely strong feelings of love and caring and understanding of the children he is friends with (for that is what he is, friends, not an observer) comes through in every sentence. It's inspiring to read about the lives these children are living---how they manage to have a happy childhood and remain innocent and caring in such a tough environment, but you know the road ahead for them is not going to be an easy one. If you don't feel outraged after reading this book about the state of the public schools in big cities, you haven't read too carefully. And the fault is not where so many like to put it--with the teachers, with the students, with the parents, the fault is with a society where people are getting richer and richer but there is still not enough money to have reasonable class sizes in cities, to restore music and arts and doctors in the schools taken away 20 years ago, and to have a graduation rate not as shameful as the one where most of these kids will go to high school. This book really moved me and I am going to work harder to improve my childrens' urban schools.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching Portraits of Resilience, January 13, 2004

By 

Kevin (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope (Paperback)

In Ordinary Resurrections, Jonathan Kozol deviates from his usual "gloves off" attack of the issues facing minority children. Instead of building the case against the inequitable system with facts and figures, as he has in previous work, he has chosen the subtle but effective approach of a storyteller. He paints a very descriptive portrait of the victims of continued segregation and racism that may inspire those in positions of influence to make more compassionate decisions regarding the lives of the children they serve.

Things that scream out to me from Kozol's book(s):

1) Incarceration vs. Education (do the math!)
The incarceration industry is thriving on blind public support. If taxpayers knew they were paying on the average ten to twenty times more to incarcerate supposed perpetrators of victimless crimes than it would cost to educate them, I'd bet they might even overlook their racist fears. The corporate/federal mentality that chooses to decide early on what these children will bring to the economy seems to prefer them as a product in this system versus potential contributors to something greater.

2) Resilience (despite our conditional "help")
In their innocent naiveté the children neglected by the system remain courageous, hopeful, and resilient. This resilience may diminish as they weather the inequities of the system that oppresses them, but it is often the attribute that enables them to succeed regardless of our preaching and teaching. Just imagine what heights they might reach if they continued to be nurtured as they are by the caring individuals in their lives now.

3) Compassion (essential)
As a beneficiary of white male privilege his reflections from the other side of the gap are poignant and insightful lessons for those of us too far removed from the reality that exists in many of our cities. Even after this racial inequity is acknowledged it is difficult for most of us to express empathy in ways that ring genuine. Kozol does! He is trusted and welcomed by the culture and community he strives to serve. His stories reflect a model for learning and practicing compassion which, in my opinion, may be the single most important factor in saving ourselves from extinction. Kozol repeatedly demonstrates the importance
of compassion in his work. Listen to him!

4) Racism, segregation, inequality (market view politics)
Racism is institutionalized in the United States despite the hope segregation was ending that the civil rights movements of the sixties inspired. "Kids notice that no politicians talk about this. They hear the politicians saying, "We're gonna have tougher standards in your separate-but-not-equal schools. We're gonna raise the bar of academic discipline in your separate-but-not-equal schools." But nobody says we're going to make them less separate and more equal. Nobody says that." - Kozol interview in Education World

5) Toxic environments (no one to litigate)
AIDS, asthma, drugs, violence, toxic pollution, poverty, malnutrition, lack of medical attention, apartheid economics, and neglect are common elements in the environment Kozol's children try to survive in. Basic needs must be satisfied before we can expect children to be receptive to that which we would have them learn. Kozol is issuing a wake-up call to the complacent masses that are either unaware or in denial that this situation is serious and threatens all of us socially, emotionally, and economically.

In my opinion, implications for educators that may be gleaned from Kozol's book include:
* The extreme importance of compassion in all aspects of dealing with children.
* Recognition that before we talk about diversity we need to spend a lot more
time in the conversation about racism.
* Locking people up is not rehabilitation and in the long run is socially,
emotionally, spiritually, and economically disastrous. Break the cycle of incarceration!