Charity Isn't A Good Substitute For Justice.

I Have Been Criticized Throughout The Course Of My Career For Placing Too Much Faith In The Reliability Of Children's Narratives; But I Have Almost Always Found That Children Are A Great Deal More Reliable In Telling Us What Actually Goes On In Public School Than Many Of The Adult Experts Who Develop Policies That Shape Their Destinies.

Many Of Us Regard Ourselves As Mildly Liberal Or Centrist Politically, Voice Fairly Pleasant Sentiments About Our Poor Children, Contribute Money To Send Poor Kids To Summer Camp, Feel Benevolent. We're Not Nazis; We're Nice People. We Read Sophisticated Books. We Go To Church. We Go To Synagogue. Meanwhile, We Put Other People's Children Into An Economic And Environmental Death Zone. We Make It Hard For Them To Get Out. We Strip The Place Bare Of Amenities. And We Sit Back And Say To Ourselves, "well, I Hope That They Don't Kill Each Other Off. But If They Do, It's Not My Fault.

I Always Want To Tell These Young Idealists That The World Is Not As Dangerous As Many In The Older Generation Want Them To Believe...the [people] For Whom I Feel The Greatest Sadness Are The Ones Who Choke On Their Beliefs, Who Never Act On Their Ideals, Who Never Know The State Of Struggle In A Decent Cause, And Never Know The Thrill Of Even Partial Victories.

Competitive Skills Are Desperately Needed By Poor Children In America, And Realistic Recognition Of The Economic Roles That They May Someday Have An Opportunity To Fill Is Obviously Important, Too. But There Is More To Life, And There Ought To Be Much More To Childhood, Than Readiness For Economic Functions.

More Money Is Put Into Prisons Than Into Schools. That, In Itself, Is The Description Of A Nation Bent On Suicide. I Mean, What Is More Precious To Us Than Our Own Children? We Are Going To Build A Lot More Prisons If We Do Not Deal With The Schools And Their Inequalities.