Click here to bypass page layout and jump directly to story.=


UC Berkeley >


University of California

Press releases Top stories News - Media Relations

Berkeley








NEWS SEARCH



NEWS HOME


ARCHIVES


EXTRAS


MEDIA
RELATIONS

  Press Releases

  Image Downloads

  Contacts


  

 Press releases

MEDIA ADVISORY: Author and educator Jonathan Kozol to visit UC Berkeley

ATTENTION: ASSIGNMENT DESKS, CALENDER EDITORS

18 October 2002
Contact: Carol Hyman
(510) 643-7944
cph@pa.urel.berkeley.edu


 

WHAT:
A talk at the University of California, Berkeley, by well-known educator and author Jonathan Kozol. In a visit sponsored by the campus's new Center for the Development of Peace and Well-being, Kozol will speak about the innocence of children who, unsoiled by the world, can view their place in life without cynicism or despair.

The center, housed in the campus's Institute for Human Development, delves into the scientific understanding of what promotes peace and well-being within the individual, between individuals and in communities.

 
 

WHEN:
3 p.m., Friday, Nov. 1.

 
 

WHERE:
International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave., UC Berkeley.

 
 

WHO:
In 1967, Jonathan Kozol, a young white teacher in a poor, black section of Boston, was fired for reading a Langston Hughes poem to his 4th grade students. "Death at an Early Age," his description of his first year as a teacher, was published in 1967 and received the 1968 National Book Award in Science, Philosophy and Religion.

From the start, Kozol combined teaching with activism. He taught at South Boston High during the city's desegregation crisis. Working with black and Hispanic parents, he helped set up a storefront learning center that became a model for many others throughout the United States. A literacy plan he developed became the model for a major effort by the State Library of California. The book that followed, "Illiterate America," was the center of a campaign to spur state, federal and private action on adult literacy.

Kozol's talk will be based on his most recent book, "Ordinary Resurrections." In this book, the reader sees life through the eyes of children - not, as Kozol puts it, "from the perspective of a grown-up man with a Harvard education."

 
 

BACKGROUND:
Admission is free, but reservations via e-mail or phone are imperative because seating is limited. For reservations, call (510) 643-7491 or e-mail lshiota@socrates.berkeley.edu or erinah@socrates.berkeley.edu.