Death At An Early Age

After reading the Kozol piece, consider what he might say regarding "Monsters." Are they created by society, or do Monsters responsible for their behavior? Do you agree with Kozol? Why or why not?

In "Death at an Early Age," Jonathan Kozol describes the life of Stephen, who is a boy with poor reading, math, and social skills. No one complains about Stephen's condition because he dose not have any parents and resides in foster care. Kozol goes on to describe how no one is encouraging in Stephen's life, even his Art Teacher berates him for not being able to draw pictures like the other children.

Kozol would probably argue that society creates monsters. In Stephen's case, he had no parents, no family, and no authoritarians in his life that truly cared for him. Therefore, it is inevitable that Stephen grows up to become a "monster." Kozol makes the point to include in the article that the Art Teacher did not even encourage him, but instead put him down for his different artistic ability. She did not treat him any differently than the other children, though Kozol says that it was apparent that he was abused. Perhaps if the Art Teacher had cared enough to be a little kinder to Stephen without discouraging him, he might have had a little more motivation and therefore that could have driven him to be a little more self confident. However can it really be the Art Teacher's fault if she was simply trying to carry out a lesson plan? Should she be expected to treat Stephen differently than his peers? I say yes because Kozol says that it was apparent that Stephen was abused. Therefore the Art Teacher should have seen the signs that something was wrong, and should have done something about that.

I agree with Kozol that monsters are created in part by society. Personality and other psychiatric problems contribute as to why humans become "monsters," but environment definately has an overwhelming impact. Even though Stephen has learning disabilities, if he was cared and not abused, he might have had a chance to really live as a normal child. However, society kept him back and never gave him a chance. Instead he was forced to live within society's expectations, which are far too limited for someone of Stephen's ability. Therefore it is likely that Stephen turned into another one of society's criminalistic monsters.