Modeling Civic Engagement: A Student Conversation with Jonathan Kozol

Abstract

Jonathan Kozol's visit to Portland, Oregon, in April 2005 included a dialogue with 55 urban middle and high school students about inequities in American schools. Students left this conversation with a stronger sense of the systemic impediments to equal education. They also felt that their voice had been heard on a topic of national import. This essay suggests that Kozol provided students with a model of patient civic engagement and that teachers who use Kozol's work should build on this framework.