Kozol on Education

To kick off the weekend of diversity here at Colby (ironic, considering the composition of the student population), Jonathan Kozol spoke tonight. He had a lot to say about the education of poor black students, and how they are at a disadvantage. He had a lot to say about NCLB, and how it is stupid and needs to go away. To that end, he talked about working with Senator Ted Kennedy towards getting rid of it. I thought he was a good speaker, and he certainly knew how to appeal to his audience of young, liberal-minded students. He then had a book signing. I was with a friend, who after the talk decided to go ahead and minor in education like he had been thinking of doing. We waited in line to get our books signed, both of us hoping to be able to talk with him for a bit. The line in front of us, maybe ten people, took forty minutes to go through. It seemed like everybody got to have an actual conversation. Then it came to us. He shook our hands, asked our names, where we were from, signed our books. That was it. Minorly depressing. I can understand not wanting to talk with everybody, but it just felt like we were kind of shunted aside. Sigh...over it now, though, and more worried about the freezing cold room I'm typing in.

It's cold outside, it's cold inside, it's cold everywhere. Oh well. I'll get in bed with a book; warm right up. Plus, girl scout cookies to munch on (thanks mom!) I have to go help a friend with math; after that, bed time. The radio show this morning went great; the guy in the studio after me kind of cut me off at the end though. Next time I'll announce the end of the show at about five of ten. Hope any listeners enjoyed the extremely random choice of music. At some point, we realized we were kind of just screwing with people. Gaelic Storm? Really? Anywhooo...g'night. Dancing and singing and dinner and bonding for BMR Saturday! And women's ice hockey. Yay!