Grace Huldtquist
ENGL-1120-069
David Vinson
20 February 2017
Inequality in its Many Forms
Targeting students in a classroom based off gender or race is an invalid and unfair
accusation to make regardless of setting. In the articles “From Still Separate, Still Unequal:
America’s Educational Apartheid” by Jonathon Kozol and “How Male and Female Students Use
Language Differently” by Deborah Tannen, arguments are made for and against unequal
treatment of students in the United States. Tannen takes on an argument that passively
discriminates against women as she points to the behavior of the women in her personal
classroom that is habitually gentle and non-confrontational. Kozol argues that greater social
systems in America have led minority children to being discriminated against in the public
school system. Tannen’s categorization of women to be shy and less aggressive in the classroom
setting and Kozol’s revelation that minorities attending inner city schools have worse education
points to the idea of inequality among students. Through the use of statistics and disturbing
percentages, personal anecdotes and hands on experiences, both Kozol and Tannen raise
awareness to the nation’s most evident and problematic rising symbols of inequality. While both
raise awareness, Tannen’s research undermines an entire gender for their behavior in the
classroom, whereas Kozol’s points to how a system has been created that oppresses minorities in
the classroom, making his claims more viable.
In the article “From Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid,”
Jonathon Kozol describes the harsh reality of inner city public schools and the isolation and fear
some students face today. Kozol illustrates the graphic reality of children’s isolation in the
poorest and most segregated sections of inner cities. School systems, specifically ones with
majorities of African American and Hispanic students, in inner cities have less access to
resources. Resources lacking in these areas include doctors, affordable healthcare, and thriving
businesses. Resources lacking in the school system include better educated teachers, college
preparatory or art courses, sports, and afterschool programs. In the text, Kozol gives the example
of schools in New York City where parents pay a lot of money to enroll their children “in
extraordinary early-education programs that give them social competence and rudimentary
pedagogic skills unknown to children of the same age in the city’s poorer neighborhoods” (Kozel
