An Example Summary of Whitfield's Essay

Hilary Whitfield, who wrote "Children Left Behind," compares her personal experienees with education to what Jonathan Kozol examines in his book Savage Inequalities:  Children in America's Schools. Whitfield attended a Catholic school and then tranfered to Abraham Lincoln High School, an inner city school. The violence in schools, Whitfield suggsts, takes away from the overall educational experience. At Abraham High School where she attended, Hilary discusses the presence and implications of the four area gangs. In response, her high school outlawed  solid colored outfits in red, green, black and white. In Kozol's book, he observed two area teacher who watched soap operas during school hours. In an educational institution where learning should be a recursive (ongoing) process, Whitfield tells us about her principal, Mr. Granzino, who had an open door policy for all students. If teachers who did not care about their job was enough, school conditions also affected a student's potential to learn. Kozol observes an area school that did not have heat during the winter and in another school, the ceiling was collapsing. Unlike the schools that Kozol describes, Whitfield's school made renovations to the band room, the cafeteria, and to some of her classrooms. However, it was difficult at times because for three days, the students went without heat.