Skip to main content

Kozol: Amazing Grace

February 18, 2019

Kozol: Important Quotes




"Walking into St. Ann's Church on a hot summer afternoon, one is immediately in the presence of small children. they seem to be everywhere: in the garden, in the hallways, in the kitchen, in the chapel, in the stairs."
I think this quote is important because it tells the reader that there are a lot of children around this area, whether or not it was for a good reason or not. This quote explains the importance children have on the culture in Mott Haven. Although this area is dangerous, children are part of it, but the danger is just a way of life for these kids, they are used to it. This quote is important to the reading because it explains what the reading is centered around, the children of Mott Haven.

"Crack-cocaine addiction and the intravenous use of heroin, which children I have meet here call 'the needle drug,' are woven into the texture of existence in Mott Haven."
This quote explains the conditions children of Mott Haven are exposed to. The fact that children of this area know what heroin and crack-cocaine are is disturbing to me. I do not think children should be exposed to this, although I know some families don't have a choice and cannot move out of these conditions. But, this is what the children have been exposed to their whole lives, so it's all that they know. I chose this quote because it gives the reader an idea of what the children of Mott Haven are exposed to, even if they are as disturbing as drugs like these.

"In speaking of rates of homicide in New York City neighborhoods, the Times refers to the streets around St. Ann's as 'the deadliest blocks' in 'the deadliest precinct' of the city."
This also shows what the children of Mott Haven are exposed to, even things as shocking as homicides. This piece Kozol wrote is centered around children, which I think he did a great job explaining by describing the conditions so well. I think these conditions are very detrimental to these children's development, but they are so used to these situations. A quote about homicides is important to this reading because it gives the reader an idea of how dangerous Mott Haven is.


Comments

  1. Reilly Clancey's FNED 346 blog, 2019 editionMarch 2, 2019 at 11:42 AM

    Hi Amanda! I like how you started your blog, the quote is short but impactful as it speaks the reality of the situation in Mott Haven.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kristof: USA Land of Limitations

February 11, 2019 Kristof: A Reflection This article was interesting to me because the author made it clear that how much money a parent brings in can affect how successful a child can be. Kristof writes "parents' incomes correlate to their adult children's incomes roughly as heights do." And I could understand this because if the child grows up in a low income family, there will be certain stressors throughout their school years, which can effect their self efficacy, or what they believe they can achieve. Kristof gives the audience an example using a friend of his, a talented man, struggled from when he was born and had notable moments throughout his life. I understand the author's point of growing up from poverty can be extremely though, and favorable results aren't typical. To reflect on this and relate it to my life, I know I could very well possibly be seeing some signs of poverty in my internships, because of the free or reduced lunch pe...
4 comments
Read more

Christensen: Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us

March 4, 2019 Christensen: The Author's Argument In "Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us," by Christensen, the author argues that there are many harmful stereotypes in movies for children, mainly movies by Disney. To provide evidence, he analyzed some movies, like Popeye in "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves." In this clip, there is a very stereotypical depiction of people of Arabic descent, as well as stereotypical views on women. Christensen describes the creator of this cartoon of depicting "...all Arabs with the same face, same turban, same body--and they are all thieves swinging enormous swords. At one point in the cartoon, Popeye clips a dog collar on helpless Olive Oyl and drags her through the desert. Later, the 40 thieves come riding through town stealing everything..." Christensen uses this as evidence to prove the fact that there are very stereotypical views on minorities in this Popeye clip. The author also uses an assignment for his...
2 comments
Read more