Amazing Grace Jonathan Kozol

Quotes From Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol

" St. Ann's Church, on St. Ann's Avenue, is three blocks from the subway station. The children who come to this small Episcopal church for food and comfort and to play, and the mothers and fathers who come here for prayer, are said to be the poorest people in New York".

          Jonathan Kozol talks about the church and how the pastor tells him that the people who come there are " the poorest of the poor". The children that grow up in this neighborhood are met with daily unimaginable challenges. The church represents a small beacon of hope and help in a neighborhood surrounded by violence, drug addiction, extreme poverty and depression. Kozol describes entering the church and how children are everywhere. The gentle pastor there, Martha Overall, is surrounded by children. Kozol says " In one of the most diseased and dangerous communities in any city of the Western world, the beautiful old stone church on St. Ann's Avenue is a gentle sanctuary from the terrors of the streets outside". 
             St. ANN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH MOTT HAVEN

          " The place that Cliffie is referring to turns out to be a waste incinerator that was put in operation recently over the objections of the parents in the neighborhood". 

The medical waste incinerator is just one example given of things in the neighborhood that are put there because it is a poverty stricken area. The waste products from 14 area hospitals are all sent there because parents had successfully resisted putting it into another area. Cliffie the young boy who gives the author a neighborhood tours mother tells the author that " there is trashy things all over". There is a garbage dump just three blocks away. People also illegally dump their trash in the area.

This is a link to an article regarding the objections to the waste incinerator in Mott Haven

https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/20/nyregion/neighborhood-report-mott-haven-illegal-emissions-add-fuel-battle-over.html


3000 homeless families have also been relocated to this neighborhood. Cliffie's mother asks " Why do you want to put so many people with small children in a place with so much sickness?" The sickness and disease and poverty that surrounds the children in this area makes it almost impossible for them to improve their circumstances. The questions that I would want to discus are; What can be done to change these areas and stop this cycle of violence and poverty? Also , why do government officials make these areas worse by putting things like the dump there and ignoring the poverty and children that live there? Why don't these people have a voice in what happens in their neighborhood?

Blog 1 Discussion By Marian, Christian, Ian, Serena

These are the questions that our group had for discussion?

1) What are the biggest obstacles facing people that are trying to break out of the "class?"- Christian

2) What do we do about the other issues, such as alcohol, home environment etc., that impact social mobility?- Marian -

*3) If gifted schools tend to do better and be more desirable, why have public schools not begun adopting more aspects of these schools into their curriculum? - Ian

4) How did we, as a society, end up revolving back to a "hierarchy," the thing that the founding fathers were trying to fight against?- Serena

U.S.A., Land of Limitations? By: Nicholas Kristof

          This author, Nicholas Kristof, in the Article U.S.A., Land of Limitations?  argues that if a person is born in poverty in the United States today, they have very little chance of bettering their circumstances. He argues that while America used to be a land of opportunity it no longer really is. He gives an example of his friend Rick, who was born in poverty and bad circumstances. Rick he argues, was a good person and very smart but could not get ahead in our society that limited him. In the end, he basically died because he did not have the money for the medication he needed. The class gaps that we have in society today as well as the lack of social mobility he compares to the circumstances that drove the founding fathers away in the first place. He points out that the race gap has diminished but the class gap has widened considerably. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/social-mobility-america/491240/

His main argument is that the limitations today don't make it impossible for a person to improve their circumstances but they make it extremely unlikely. This problem he says, is what our country and the politicians need to focus on. One of his main arguments in the article is that just not having money is not the only limitation for children growing up in poverty. There is also the violence, absentee parents, and illnesses that go along with the lack of money that are so difficult to overcome. 


          One point that I would like to talk more about is the issue that he brought up about money not being the only issue that affects mobility. The other issues that he raised like violence, alcoholism, poor nutrition etc. are just as if not more important in my opinion. Education I think is an important pathway to a child having an opportunity to improve their life later on. So many children don't even attend school regularly. Even if healthcare is provided that doesn't mean parents can miss work to take them to the doctor.How do we deal with these issues to give these kids a better opportunity. I would love to hear any thoughts anyone has. This to me seems the biggest challenge. 
          Programs like financial aid to help students at the college level are really helpful. However students who are from wealthy background do far better in college. Low income students  have to work and cannot put as much time into their studies as wealthy students. They also are more limited on where they can attend and how often. The opportunities are there but that doesn't mean its equal.
        

My name is Marian Coney. I live in Portsmouth Rhode Island with my husband and two children.

 I work for Blackstone Catering as a Bartender.

 I have also worked for Middletown Public schools as a Paraprofessional for the last five years.

I am attending Rhode Island College to finish my teaching certification. While I am going to school I work as a substitute Teachers Assistant for Newport Regional Special Education Collaborative.

I have two Labrador Retrievers and twelve chickens.

In my free time which I don't have much of, I like to go to our cabin on Moosehead Lake in Maine.

My husband built it himself and it is in a very small town which is close to the Canadian Border.