Fremount High School is a public school located in the city of Fremount, California. The school was founded in 1892 and is currently attended by over 1,500 students.
The school has been recognized for its academic excellence, and has been named a National Blue Ribbon School on multiple occasions. In addition, the school has also been named a California Distinguished School.
Jonathan Kozol is a well-known author who has written extensively about education inequality in the United States. In his book, “The Shame of the Nation,” Kozol profiled Fremount High School and its students. He praised the school for its dedication to providing a quality education to all of its students, regardless of their background or circumstances.
The book “Kids at Risk” by Jonathan Kozol describes the problems of Fremont High School and how the staff and students are affected. Kozol depicts a school in Los Angeles, called Fremont High School. He explains the deplorable living conditions both teachers and pupils must endure. He covers everything from the student population to restrooms, as well as other issues, using plenty of supporting details and firsthand accounts.
Kozol also addresses how the majority of students are living in poverty and how that affects their schooling. Jonathan Kozol’s “Fremount High School” is an effective way to show the reader what goes on inside of a public school that is struggling.
Kozol begins his book with describing the conditions of Fremont High School. He talks about how it was built in 1912 and designed for 1,200 students yet, currently, there are 3,000 students attending. This already creates a problem because there aren’t enough resources for all the students.
For example, there are only forty-eight textbooks for seventy-six English classes. The library has been closed for two years and the only computers are in the business education department which consists of two desktop computers and one printer. The school doesn’t have enough books, materials, or technology for the students which creates an unfair learning environment.
Fremont High School is located in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. It is a low-income neighborhood with predominantly Hispanic residents. Jonathan Kozol talks about how most of the students are living in poverty and how that affects their schooling. He explains how many students have to work to help support their families financially. Some students even have to take care of their younger siblings while their parents are working. This leaves them little to no time to do homework or study for tests/quizzes. As a result, their grades start to slip and they eventually give up on school altogether.
Kozol also addresses the issue of funding for public schools. He explains how schools in wealthy neighborhoods receive more money than schools in low-income neighborhoods. This is because the property taxes in wealthy neighborhoods are higher than in low-income neighborhoods. As a result, the schools in wealthy neighborhoods have more resources and better facilities than the schools in low-income neighborhoods. This creates an unequal playing field and makes it difficult for students in low-income neighborhoods to get a quality education.
He criticizes Fremont for being a failed educational institution. He demonstrates the disparity and squalid circumstances at Fremont High School. The goal is to draw attention to the school as a tragedy for everyone who is subjected to it. “Fremont High School” is fascinating since it provides information and accounts about what is going on there.
Jonathan Kozol does an excellent job in Fremont High School of making the school’s problems real for readers, and he clearly cares about the students and teachers there.
He offers very little hope for change or improvement, however. This makes the book frustrating, but it is still an important and powerful look at one of America’s failing public schools.
In Fremont, children are subjected to squalor living and ridiculous regulations. The workers, pupils, and even Kozol see no reason for things to be this way. With a conversation between students that Kozol instigated, the cause was revealed. Mireya, a bright youngster in Fremont, told Kozol that she did not want to go to the factory with her mother and instead aspire to attend college.
When Kozol asked what was stopping her, she told him that she “didn’t have the money.” Fremont High School is one of the worst public schools in the country. The districts surrounding it are some of the wealthiest in the nation. Kozol brings to light the gross inequality in our society through his discussion with Mireya and his observations of Fremont High School.
Fortino, a student at the school, chimed in and informed Mireya that the plant needs employees to sew. He tells her that because she is “ghetto,” she has been destined to work at the factory since birth. His language may be crude, but his sentiments are true. Fremont High School offers twenty fewer days of instruction than other schools and students may need to take on part-time employment simply so they can acquire school credits.
Mireya is one of the students at Fremount High School that Jonathan Kozol shadowed in his book, Savage Inequalities. Fremount is located in a low-income, Hispanic neighborhood in San Antonio, Texas. The school itself is old and run-down; there are no computers, the library is tiny, and there are often rats and cockroaches in the classrooms. The surrounding neighborhood is also full of poverty and crime.
Despite all of these disadvantages, the students at Fremount are determined to succeed. They are eager to learn and have high aspirations for their future. Mireya, for example, wants to go to college and become a doctor.
The problem is that the school doesn’t have the resources to properly educate its students. There are not enough books, teachers are often overworked and underpaid, and classes are often overcrowded. As a result, many of the students at Fremount end up dropping out or failing to reach their full potential.
Jonathan Kozol’s book is an important look at the disparities between rich and poor schools in America. It highlights the lack of resources that many public schools have and the ways in which this affects students’ ability to succeed.