Letter to a Young Teacher

Letters to a Young Teacher

Letters to a Young Teacher is a very inspirational novel written by Jonathon Kozol. It’s a collection of letters written to a teacher under the pseudonym of Fancasca, who teaches at an inner-city school. Kozol gives advice that any new teachers need to hear. He also goes into some of the politics and policies that affect teachers everywhere. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. He spoke of his own experiences teaching in elementary; it made the whole book appear very real and relatable. His concerns with the policies that affect teachers gave the book some added depth and is something all teachers can share.

As inspirational as this book was, it was also very scary and disheartening at some points. The disparity between what the children need and what policies are being placed is terrifying. I have even witnessed for myself a teacher being handed what is basically a script and being told to teach it. Kozol puts this very well. He compares it to “those miserable 16-city European tours where people are told that they can never leave the bus” (Kozol, 50), and that’s true. Also in Letters to a young teacher, he argues against having to “teach to the test”. He argues that there are qualities that students can bring to classroom that cannot be measured by standardized testing. Letters to a Young Teacher does a great job in highlighting the differences between the values of the teachers and those who control the policies made to the educational system.

In the lessons that are present in today’s classroom, there is little room for creativity or deviation from the very scripted curriculum. Students are not encouraged to raise their hand and make everyday life connections to share with the rest of the cla...

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... importance of why you should never give up on children. Although the stories of the policies were powerful, it was the stories that involved the children that affected me the most. He really hits home the fact that “victories are victories” (Kozol, 68) A teacher’s job and top priority is the success of the students and giving them the tools and lessons that they need to achieve. It is not limited to the skills and tools taught by the curriculum. Things like curiosity and critical thinking, humanity and empathy are needed as well. There is nowhere in the curriculums of today’s schooling that “delight”, “joy” or “kindness” is mentioned, which are just as important in schooling as the technical skills. (Kozol, 100). That’s really what I took away from the book, the need to incorporate these things in education to spark a student’s motivation for learning and growing.