Jonathan Kozol is a teacher and nonfiction writer born on September 5, 1936 to psychiatrist/neurologist Harry and social worker Ruth. He grew up in Newton, Massachusetts with his sister and parents. They were a middle-class Jewish family. Kozol was educated at Harvard and had previously lived a comfortable life until he decided to move to Boston to teach in a poor neighborhood. This began his new life of dedication to the education children received and began to raise awareness of how unequal education was. Kozol's works were based on personal experiences from his life. For example, he wrote about his fourth-grade class in Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools. It supports those who receive an inferior education even though America wants to claim that discrimination no longer exists. Kozol wrote about the experience as her mother and father's health degenerated. The couple both died at 102, 2 years apart. The book is a very intimate description of Kozol's relationship with his parents as their lives came to an end. Kozol continues to write today and still participates in the fight against discrimination in schools. She currently lives in Byfield Massachusetts with her dog Sweetie