Book Review

Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope Reviewed by Dani Potter

Jonathan Kozol (2001). Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope. New York: HarperCollins, 388 pp., $14.00 (paperback). ISBN 0-060- 956453.

Don’t push these children away. Don’t ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the Kingdom.

-Jesus, Mark 10:13, The Message

onathan Kozol has taken away the protective myth that America’s school children are all treated equally, with dignity, and given unvarying op- J portunities. His readers are called to recognize that, ethically, American society

is failing c h i l h . Morally, it favors some children more than others, o h according to money and race. Socially, it values c h i l h according to what the members of society think c h i l h are worth. In his latest book, Ordinary Resurrections: Chi%fren in the Years of Hope, Kozol returned to the South Bronx in New York City to spend 4 more years with the c h i l h who had become his friends. He offers a glimpse into a reality that replaces equal value with presentday segregation for the childm of the poor and into their amazing hope in their culture of despair.

Although many in power in the United States would like to ignore the disgrace of how underprivileged students are treated in the education system in areas such as Mott Haven, New York, Kozol’s firsthand account of such inequality calls for a recognition and reformation of America’s priorities. Told in the children’s words, this book contributes awareness to the desperate need for compassion and knowl- edge of the struggles of many American youth. The facts he provided in the book are both shocking and compelling and will challenge the values one holds to the point that action on behalf of children becomes a necessity.

As Kozol stated, the reality is that there are few areas in which the value we attribute to a child’s life may be so clearly mea- sured as in the decisions that we make about the money we believe it’s worth investing in the education of one person’s child as opposed to that of someone else’s child. (p. 44)

Pragmatically, he believes these children are seen as commodities on which U.S. society must only spend according to what will work for America’s financial benefit. They are viewed through the lens of not being able to offer much individual

Dani Potter, Department of Guidance and Counseling, Point Lama Nazarene University. Dani Potter now lives in Fort Myers, Florida. Correspondence concerning this review should be addressed to Dani Potter, 13290 Corbel Circle, Apartment 2221, Fort Myers, FL 33907 (e-mail: danipotter@hotmail.com).

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future prospect, so society gves them “sensible accommodations to diminished possibilities” (Kozol, p. 106).

Money spent now is money saved in the fu tu rea future where these children wdl bring only public disorder if society does not invest the minimm to prevent such utter failure. How can we, a nation of equal opportunity, a nation under God, perceive humans in this light? Kozol has made clear the bold reality that these are children, equal in innocence, but unequal in opportunity They are addressed in educational policy as mhuman-a less valuable but necessary topic that we, as members of American society, must deal with in order to profit ourselves.

Kozol’s book provokes the questions, How have we come to see this as accept- able? How has the monetary value overtaken the philosophy of the invaluable worth of each and every child? How have we allowed our social values to become numb to such wordy and intelligent-sounding policies as to avoid the underlying truth-dddren of the poor are not as important? We must respond to the call to

look at children here as children, not as ”distorted children,” not as “morally disabled children,” not as “quasi-children” who require a peculiar arsenal of reconstructive strat- egies and stick-and-carrot ideologies that wouldn’t be accepted for one hour by the parents or the teachers of the upper middle class. (Kozol, p. 117).

The tenderness of these children, along with the toughness they must de- velop to survive, will not stand up to those in power. Kozol has made plain that poverty provided more obstacles than the children could overcome alone. llus is why it is essential that those with voices spread the truth of the children’s reality, why adults must step in and work with the children through their trials and work against those who allow the trials to continue.

Kozol has pointed out realities such as that in the United States, some families must give up their pets because they do not have enough food to feed even their children. These children are not oblivious to the hand they have been given. They know of the schools with fast-food restaurants on campus. They are aware of private tutoring and multiple outdoor activities in which many other chil- dren can participate. Instead, thousands of American children are forced to live near dump sites or waste incinerators that destroy medical supplies and even human bodies because other areas have enough money to fight against such financial investors. Unfortunately along with their lack of money he pointed out that U.S. society gives them little power and far greater health risks. Overall, their childhood is limited by their society-the one that we as members of that society allow them to live in.

There should not be two gates to the riches of this kingdom. There should not be a narrow gate for the children of the poor, a wide and open gate for children of the fortunate and favored. There should be one gate. It should be known to everyone. (Kozol, p. 206)

Once read, Ordinary Resurrections destroys the bliss of ignorance. Some may tell themselves that this is not true of their own perception of children-minority children, poor children, or children simply born in the wrong area of town. However, actions, or rather inactions, destroy the truth of these words. Every adult with the ability to hear and the mind to comprehend is faced with the decision to powerfully act or despairingly ignore.

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