While I agree with a large number of the indictments made by this book, the extremist tone the author (a man I respect a great deal) takes is disheartening: his language is violent and incendiary, and the attacks he launchs at his allies bespeak the mind of an immature idealist rather than the seasoned advocate for widespread social change Kozol has since become.

While the message the book conveys is an important one (namely, that our nation's schools are not serving the function that they ought to be), the medium through which the message is conveyed leaves it garbled. Blanket attacks on often proactive teachers, administrators, and academics working for change in the country's educational system lead the reader to question Kozol's motive in writing the book.

Of course, Kozol himself realizes all of this, and offers a rebuttal to himself in the critical notes he has written for this edition, appearing fifteen years after the text was originally released. "This book was written in a dark time [1969-1975]," he says in his introduction to the 1990 edition. "It was a time when people who grew up to love their nation felt a sense of shock and shame. If, like myself, they had also staked their early years to try to bring about some serious social change, they were also likely to feel bitterness and rage." ( )

What I mainly remember from this is the author's choice to send his children to an inner city school because he reasoned it wasn't fair for him to take advantage of white privilege. What does it mean to "walk the walk" and not just "talk the talk?" ( )