Final Thoughts
After completing my reading of The Shame of the Nation by Jonathan Kozol, I have compiled a small handful of thoughts about the composition of the novel, the topics and arguments that were presented, and the subjects of apartheid education and racism as a whole. As I have indulged in the majority of my previous blog posts, I live an amazingly blessed life. I have been given everything I have ever asked for and more, perhaps undeservingly, I live in a prosperous town with a very successful school system, including enough funding for a dozen or more sports teams, an abundance of clubs and extracurriculars, and well-maintained facilities. This has been the standard since I was very young, so I have grown up taking my schooling for granted, and assuming that most people have received the same quality of education as me. In this way, I was shocked overall at the evidence presented in the novel. My biggest takeaway after reading Jonathan Kozol's work is that there is so much that I,...