Jonathan Kozol: Amazing Grace - Quotes

“The children play near the bears or on the jungle gym while their mothers wait for needles” Pg.12 I felt that this line was particularly powerful. The image of children playing while their parent waits for the needles they need to use drugs that will slowly destroy their bodies is horrific. To know with such clarity that there are people in this country who grow up in such circumstances is heartbreaking. It makes me feel my privilege in the form of a weight on my chest. “How do they know, when someone calls, that youre not dying” pg. 15 This quote comes from a part of the text discussing how in the poorer hospitals, the nurses may not arrive to a call for more than a half hour. Also within this portion of the text, the hospitals are described as being far from up-to-code. It brings forth the image of someone calling for help and then dying alone on unwashed sheets, all the while hoping someone will come to save them. While I hope these conditions have improved since 1995, I feel that the coverage on the Covid-19 pandemic showed us that things have scarcely changed in the poorer parts of our cities. “I saw the prostitutes lined up for condoms, I saw the drug users lined up for needles, it was like seeing a line of ghosts, it looked like all the people there were dying” pg. 23 I picked this quote because it felt so raw and true. I have watched relatives waste away on street drugs, and I know the empty look in their eyes, I know how it hurts to see the weight falling off of them over time. People line the streets, live on the streets, raise their children in these conditions, it's truly awful. “There’s a whole world out there if you know it's there, if you can see it. But they’re in a cage. They cannot see” pg. 24 This quote, while uncomfortable to read and acknowledge, gives me a modicum of hope. We, as educators, can help people see beyond the confines of their social status. We can show our students that there is a world out there that they have the ability to change. We can change our society one student at a time.