Discussion questions: Amazing Grace
chapter 5
1. Kozol includes lots of statistics from pages 142 to 147. Pick the three that strike you the most and discuss them, either separately or together.
2. Look up ‘segregate’ in your dictionary and write your own working definition.
3. Looking at pages 152-154, answer the following: Obviously, we should not have schools like Taft High. But, should we have place like Stuyvesant? Why or why not?
4. Put the book aside for a moment. Kozol writes of “physical and spiritual poisons” in the atmosphere. Based on your impressions to this point of the book, and your experience in life, what is he talking about? Just freewrite about it for five minutes.
chapter 6
1. Looking at the first full paragraph, page 188, answer the following: How do Rev. Overall’s words relate to the book as a whole? How do her observations relate to the relationship between rich, middle-class, and poor in the United States?
2. Starting on page 189, what is harmful about the ‘New Hope’ stories in newspapers, magazines and on television? How are these stories dangerous to the poorest of the poor in America? Furthermore, how are these stories dangerous (or not dangerous, in your opinion) to the middle-class? Is Kozol correct when he says (page 230) “It’s more likely that they’ll write more stories about “Hope Within the Ashes” and then pile on more ashes.”
3. Reread some of Mrs. Washington’s conversations with Kozol (in this chapter). What strikes you about the topics, her tone, and/or her outlook?
4. Now, take the conversation with Anthony. Address this conversation the same way.
5. Finally, take the Mother’s Day church service (page 225-). Why did Kozol place this passage at the end of the book, and what is he trying to say with its inclusion here?
Amazing Grace, epilogue, and Memorium
Epilogue
1. How does the anti-violence rally (and especially the way in which Kozol describes it) illustrate the problems between the city government and the South Bronx?
2. Looking at page 240, answer the following: It seems that Kozol has been contemplating, for much of the book, on the similarities between the poor in America and the Holocaust in Europe. Finally, someone (Mr. Castro) gives him an answer he can use. What do you think about this answer and Kozol’s inclusion of it in the book?
3. Looking at page 247: “What will their children be like when they grow up?” Well, what will they be like?
4. Why does Kozol offer little-to-no solutions to the problems exposed by this book?
Memorium
1. What is your reaction to reading this section?
2. Why does Kozol include this section in the book?