Htet Lin

Professor Ghazarian

Sociology 001

20 November 17

Savage Inequalities

In the article, Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol, there is a history teacher named Irl

Solomon that teaches students from East St. Louis Senior High School. Unlike any other schools,

East St. Louis Senior High School was in a poor shape. Being a graduate from Brandeis

University, Solomon challenged himself to teach at the toughest places there is to teach.

Throughout his life, he taught more than thirty years at many urban schools. He completed his

challenge as many journalists considered him to be the highlight of the school which included in

the report of East St. Louis. Solomon had some female students in his classroom that were

pregnant or just had gave birth. He believes those students and other students have

underestimated the education of East St. Louis High School because of its conditions. He

explains that most students who graduate from East St. Louis High School do not end up going

to college or receive any further education.

There was another school nearby named Rye High School. Different from East St. Louis

High School, this High School was in a wealthier condition. Not only was the school in a better

shape, but the students performed better and showed more interest in learning. Most of the

students from Rye High School grew up in the suburbs and were provided with their needs.

Kozol took statements of a student named Jennifer who experienced going through both poor and

rich schools. Though Jennifers family was from the Bronx, she does not favor the schools from
there. She believes the wealthy people in suburbs are not responsible for financing schools that

are poor. Jennifer also mentions that students from poor school are not motivated but effortless

as they do not care about their future. She states that students cannot be forced by others to

achieve a good future but instead need to have the willingness to achieve it their selves. As

Kozol refers that increase in taxes can help the poor students, Jennifer questions him on how

giving more taxes to the poor would help her.

Aside from the classification of wealth between East St. Louis Senior High School and Rye

High School, there are students with many different characteristics. The students from East St.

Louis Senior High School are unmotivated as they end up giving birth and not extending their

education. On the other hand, students from Rye High School are willing to learn as they are

more focused on their education and what benefits them. In addition, East St. Louis Senior High

School expects their staff members to provide materials for the students and perform services

that the school cannot afford. Rye High School does the opposite by providing their campus with

educational resources for their students to improve their knowledge.

I feel as this article points out the greed towards the wealthier students and how they did not

want to help the poor because there are no benefits in return. The wealthy students looked down

on the poor students as if they were useless and did not want to be helped. All the students that

Kozol talked to about helping the poor students with the taxes had a strong rejection against the

idea. I also felt as there were racial difficulties between the two schools as the white students had

negativity towards the black students. The students from Rye High School saw how much the

students from East St. Louis Senior High School was struggling but they did not intend to help.
While concluding this article, I questioned if the students from Rye High School would have a

different opinion or statement if they were in the place of students from East St. Louis Senior

High School. Through my personal experience, I feel as our system have not changed much. I do

believe that it is slowly progressing but not enough for the poor to dig out of poverty. There are

students in the low-income class who are still struggling to pay their tuitions. Though there are

financial support systems, it is not enough for most low-income students to complete their

education and receive high paying jobs. In my opinion, those who are from the higher-income

should help the lower-income without expecting benefits in return. The lower-income students

deserve the same opportunity that the higher-income students have.