Renowned author Kozol to deliver Ellbogen Symposium address

Jonathan Kozol

   Award-winning author Jonathan Kozol comes to the University of Wyoming College of Education on Oct. 10, to deliver the 2008 John P. "Jack" Ellbogen Symposium for Teaching and Learning address.
   Kozol's talk begins at 4 p.m. in the College of Education Auditorium. A book signing and reception will follow at 5:30 p.m. in the Education Classroom Building Student Center (formerly the Education Annex).
   Driven by the civil rights campaigns of 1964 and 1965, Kozol moved from Harvard Square to a poor neighborhood of Boston, where he began teaching fourth grade at a local public school. He devoted the next four decades to the issues of education and social justice in America.
   Kozol's writings chronicle his experiences in the urban classroom. His first published nonfiction work, Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools (1967), won the National Book Award.
   Kozol's most recent publication, Letters to a Young Teacher, discusses a number of the controversial issues that the author has addressed in recent years, including high-stakes testing, corporate involvement in public schools, and re-segregation of urban schools. It also reflects on "curiosity and jubilant excitement children bring into the classroom at an early age, and their ability to overcome their insecurities when they are in the hands of an adoring and hard-working teacher."
   Book group follow-up discussions will be hosted throughout Wyoming during the 2008-09 academic year.

 

Posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2008