About Jonathan Kozol
Jonathan Kozol (born September 5, 1936) is an American writer, progressive activist, and educator, best known for his books on public education in the United States. == Early life, family and education == Jonathan Kozol was born to Jewish parents Harry Kozol and Ruth (Massell) Kozol in Boston, Massachusetts in 1936. He attended Noble and Greenough School, graduating in 1954. After graduating summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1958 with a B.A. in English literature, Kozol was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford. He did not, however, complete his scholarship, deciding instead to go to Paris so he could learn to write from accomplished authors like William Styron, Richard Wright, and other American expatriates who were living in Paris at the time. == Career beginnings == After returning to the United States, Kozol started tutoring children in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He soon became a teacher in the Boston Public Schools, but was fired for teaching a poem by the noted Black writer Langston Hughes. He then became deeply involved in the civil rights movement. Kozol subsequently taught in Newton Public Schools, which he had attended as a child, remaining there for several years before becoming more deeply involved in social justice work and dedicating more time to writing. Kozol has held two Guggenheim Fellowships, has twice been a fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation, and has also received fellowships from the Field and Ford Foundations.
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