Letters to a Young Teacher

Jonathan Kozol is responding to letters from Francesca, a new elementary school teacher in inner city Boston who has invited Kozol to visit her classroom.

In this first letter, Kozol explains that children need to be recognized. He also laments the condemnation that out-of-touch experts and politicians heap onto teachers. The magic of a good student/teacher relationship is difficult to achieve in a corporatized school context where “technicians of a dry and mechanistic, often business-driven version of ‘proficiency and productivity’” (4) set the expectations. For the author, teachers are “ministers of innocence” and “practitioners of tender expectations” (4-5). Children from less affluent families and their conceptions of the world are especially ignored in such a setting.

At the end of the letter, Kozol agrees to visit Francesca’s classroom soon.

Kozol began his career when Boston Public Schools accepted him for a teaching position in the Black community of Roxbury despite his lack of qualifications. Different classes in Kozol’s assigned school shared a shoddy auditorium learning space, and some children acted out because of the rough conditions.

Kozol was assigned to a difficult fourth grade class that was unstable due to a string of substitute teachers coming and going.