What would it take?That was the question that Geoffrey Canada found himself asking. What would it take to change the lives of poor children—not one...
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Mar 18, 2009
Greg
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"It's the parents' fault", is the oft-heard retort to all sorts of problems in our educational system. While that statement may be descriptive, it isn't prescriptive. Geoffrey Canada has an ambitious prescription to help poor urban kids in Harlem, first by ignoring vexing political and social question about the origins of the cycle of poverty. His plan is social engineering on a grand scale -- he needs to break the cycle somewhere, and chooses to draw a line in the generational sand
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Nov 11, 2008
I like the idea behind Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone. Take babies and parents of those babies and put them through a conveyor-belt system, from the time the baby is in the womb until high school. However, parts of the book annoyed me. I know test results are important in today's educational system but I felt Canada was obsessed with them, and like one of the members of his staff pointed out, you can't treat a school like a business. You can't take a kid, throw in X plus Y and get
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Jan 09, 2009
Molly
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straightforward writing made this book about the effects of poverty (and the many issues that accompany it) on the spectrum of children's education really digestable and extremely compelling. Makes the best case for why an integrated and holistic approach to raising/nurturing/education children is essential for them as individuals as well as the society.
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Feb 03, 2009
This was a hard-hitting look at the impact of poverty upon the education of minority children. It can be applied to any child growing up in an area of 60% poverty whether they live in Harlem or not. Tough chronicles Geoffrey Canada's life experiences and revolutionary perspectives. He deftly combines research with real life experiences to detail the struggle between hopelessness and possibility. I LOVE IT!!!!
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Feb 27, 2009
Edwin
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I've heard about Geoffrey Canada; he was featured on episodes of NPR's Fresh Air and This American Life. As a former inner city teacher and current suburban teacher, I'm always interested in issues like education equity, achievement gap, etc...
I think Canada is a fascinating figure-- idealistic and intensely pragmatic at the same time. God bless him and people like him who serve the poor and oppressed
I think Canada is a fascinating figure-- idealistic and intensely pragmatic at the same time. God bless him and people like him who serve the poor and oppressed
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Nov 01, 2009
Picked this up at Borders today. Been meaning to read it for a while now... ever since these guys were all over NPR last fall. Heard Paul Tough on the September 26, 2008 episode of This American Life. Then Geoffrey Canada appeared on both This I Believe and Eight Forty-Eight on November 6, 2008.
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Jan 10, 2009
Elevate Difference
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Geoffrey Canada comes from the Harlem streets, raised by a single mother who wanted to make sure her sons excelled even though the options for young Black men in poverty seem limited to imprisonment or death. Paul Tough’s book, Whatever It Takes, is part-biography of how Canada went from gang member to head of a large non-profit organization, and part-documentation of the Harlem Children’s Zone, which is Canada’s vision for egalitarian education. His method has gained support from Oprah, and Pre
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Nov 27, 2008
Mary
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Geoffrey Canada wants to save all the children. In the Harlem Children's Zone, a "97-block-laboratory in Central Harlem," the Harlem Children's Zone programs run from Baby College through high school, providing effective (and expensive) support ot parenets and children with the goal of changing the lives of poor children. Canada's vision goes beyond the Harlem Children's Zone, to the hope of creating a model that can be replicated in other neighborhoods, other cities, other places wher
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Nov 26, 2008
David
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highly readable account of Harlem Children's Zone, including description of how the approach (trying to get poor kids on a "conveyor belt" of success from Baby College for their parents with advice on speaking and reading to kids, discipline techniques, etc. through pre-K and schooling so that they'll bypass culture of failure) differs from Kipp academies and related efforts.
The author describes parenting research and its implications well, and it was actually exciting read More...
The author describes parenting research and its implications well, and it was actually exciting read More...
Jan 21, 2012
Andrea
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I've read articles and heard interviews with Geoffery Canada and just heard him speak at Old Dominion University, and for the most part I am a fan of what he is doing in Harlem with the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) and his Promise Academy. And this book is definitely worth reading for anyone who hasn't read articles about him, or the HCZ. Canada has been doing excellent work with his varied different initiatives in Harlem, trying to tip the scales in his community, to break the cycle of imbala
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Aug 05, 2011
Meurs
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2008/2009 : document romancé sur l'experience d'Harlem Children's Zone, mis sur pied par Geoffrey Canada en 2004. Objectif : eduquer TOUS les enfants de Harlem, pas seulement en sauver quelques uns avec le prof super heros . Diagnostic : retard scolaire des pauvres liés à leur parental background (methodes d education, alimentation, teenagers mothers, familles monoparentales, etc...). Importance du milieu, de l'influence des pairs, des modèles. Stratégie : commencer au plus tôt, à la grossesse;
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May 09, 2011
I was disappointed in this book. I wanted more information about the actual educational processes that Canada is advocating and implementing. Apart from the discussion of the "conveyor belt" concept and the detailed description of the Harlem Gems program that concentrated on language, I found the obsession with test scores highly disturbing. I also thought that his time-goals for raising test scores for the middle school students were unrealistic. He made decisions based on his benefac
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Mar 10, 2011
Al
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Journalist Paul Tough's incisive history of Geoffrey Canada's quest to establish effective childhood education in Harlem. The beauty of this book is that, while it focuses deserved attention on Mr. Canada, it spends equal amounts of time on the parents, the children, the teachers and administrators of the Harlem Children's Zone. Mr. Tough's presentation of all the parties is clear, sympathetic and honest. The reader sees the difficulties to be overcome, but one is left with the feeling
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Jan 30, 2011
Kristin
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Why are children from low-income families less likely to do well in school? What would it take to help an entire neighborhood of kids succeed? Author Paul Tough mixes stories of individual kids and families involved in Harlem Children’s Zone programs with a larger discussion of research on anti-poverty programs in an engaging and fascinating book. (It feels very efficient to read a summary of an entire body of research in a few very readable pages ;-) We learn about Baby College, Three year
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Jan 22, 2011
Giedra
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Picked this up at a Borders going out of business sale and I'm so glad I did.
I had heard a good bit about Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone on the radio and in magazines over the past few years, but was fascinated to get a more in-depth look at what he has done there. In addition to details on all the interlocking programs that are part of the HCZ, the book also includes background explaining the history of poverty in America, including summaries of important books/theories t More...
I had heard a good bit about Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone on the radio and in magazines over the past few years, but was fascinated to get a more in-depth look at what he has done there. In addition to details on all the interlocking programs that are part of the HCZ, the book also includes background explaining the history of poverty in America, including summaries of important books/theories t More...
Dec 21, 2009
Karin
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For a graduate project, I was researching the effects of poverty on first generation college bound students and this book was recommended to me by a friend.
I've worked in the field of education for 15 years in various capacities and have been more discouraged than encouraged regarding the importance of education for both the individual, communities, and our society overall. The lack of commitment from students and families, and lack of passion on the side of administrators and facult More...
I've worked in the field of education for 15 years in various capacities and have been more discouraged than encouraged regarding the importance of education for both the individual, communities, and our society overall. The lack of commitment from students and families, and lack of passion on the side of administrators and facult More...
Sep 08, 2009
Cynthia
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I read this book after liking a story about Harlem Children's Zone on This American Life. It's written by a scholar/journalist who sunk years of his life into examining this plan for educating poor black and hispanic kids. It's longer than it needs to be and duller than I'd like to read but he does a good job explaining the minutae that matters.
Here's the best bit of a Slate review: Canada likens KIPP's mission to a kind of reverse quarantine: Take the best kids, who already enj More...
Here's the best bit of a Slate review: Canada likens KIPP's mission to a kind of reverse quarantine: Take the best kids, who already enj More...
Jul 24, 2009
Debbie (Readerbuzz)
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Geoffrey Canada is a teacher who came up against the most-difficult-to-educate group of kids a teacher can face: kids who grew up in poverty, with broken homes, surrounded by drugs and guns and alcohol. But Canada was not daunted by this group. As a child, he grew up in the same world and, somehow, he managed to transcend that world and make a good life for himself. Canada, unlike other reformers, found much to love in the Harlem in which he grew up. He found support and love among his fellow Af
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Jun 09, 2009
Karen
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Feb 18, 2009
Eric
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This is an incredible book -- one of the best overviews of the achievement gap and the research surrounding it I've seen to date. Tough has an incredibly balanced style -- he manages to capture the intense juxtaposition of hope and despair that characterizes the struggle for educational equality. The structure of the book is incredible -- he focuses on a few stories that make his point (focus on early childhood interventions) quite convincingly without hitting you over the head with it.
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Sep 20, 2011
Cruton
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You can tell the author has a background in journalism as the language of the book was very smooth and approachable. As a forewarning this review will be in no small measure something of a comparison to Savage Inequalities which I read before this.
In any event unlike the depression brought on by the shear weight of the endless figures ans statistics in Savage, Whatever it Takes is quite uplifting. Not only does it offer solutions but it also gets away from the message that education is a f More...
In any event unlike the depression brought on by the shear weight of the endless figures ans statistics in Savage, Whatever it Takes is quite uplifting. Not only does it offer solutions but it also gets away from the message that education is a f More...
Aug 21, 2011
David
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This is a genuinely important book. The famous pro-capitalism quote "the business of America is business" could easily be updated to "the business of America is education" as the only employees who are still in demand are the well-educated and those willing to work for pennies (and the second group are not to be found in the U.S. anymore). Yet voters and politicians who are all blandly willing to repeat how valuable an education is have not taken the concrete actions to imp
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Nov 13, 2009
Redeemer
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We shared this book with our board of directors in September. It tells the story of the Harlem Children's Zone, one of the most innovative and impactful community development efforts in the country.
Geoffrey Canada, the organization's director, is attempting to transform a 100 square block section of Harlem. Not just provide services to those who want/need them, not just help a small number of young people "escape" their neighborhood, not just intervene in one or two speci More...
Geoffrey Canada, the organization's director, is attempting to transform a 100 square block section of Harlem. Not just provide services to those who want/need them, not just help a small number of young people "escape" their neighborhood, not just intervene in one or two speci More...
Oct 30, 2011
Mark
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I was very impressed by the book, although that may speak more to Geoffrey Canada and his work than Paul Tough's writing.
I will highlight two aspects of Tough's work. First, he does a great job of taking the reader through the sociological history of how Americans have viewed poverty, educational achievement, and race. I learned a lot about the swings our society takes from government intervention (and the belief that our country is failing the poor) and government retraction (and th More...
I will highlight two aspects of Tough's work. First, he does a great job of taking the reader through the sociological history of how Americans have viewed poverty, educational achievement, and race. I learned a lot about the swings our society takes from government intervention (and the belief that our country is failing the poor) and government retraction (and th More...
Oct 12, 2010
Kaleena
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A tough read because this book spoke exactly to the work I'm doing right now: intergenerational poverty and working to overcome it. Several times while reading I found myself nodding in agreement and wondering why I was spending my leisure time reading about something I spent struggling with all day long.
Geoffrey Canada, the founder of the Harlem Children's Zone, is constantly struggling to come up with creative solutions to help children escape from their circumstances. He's set up a More...
Geoffrey Canada, the founder of the Harlem Children's Zone, is constantly struggling to come up with creative solutions to help children escape from their circumstances. He's set up a More...
Oct 21, 2009
Krista
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I waffled between 3 and 4 on this one. It's hard to separate the ballsy experiment of the Harlem Chidren's Zone, to which I would give 5 stars for effort and innovation, from the book detailing some of the stories, to which I give 3 stars because I didn't think it provided adequate coverage or information.
Paul Tough tries to tell too many stories so he ends up telling too many stories not so well. The organization of the book is troubling, flipping back and forth between Canada's y More...
Paul Tough tries to tell too many stories so he ends up telling too many stories not so well. The organization of the book is troubling, flipping back and forth between Canada's y More...
Mar 28, 2009
Will
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This is theMountains Beyond Mountains of ed reform. It's a compelling look at Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone, told by a journalist who has clearly lived and breathed his subject for many months.
There are two <competing> complementary strategies employed by the HCZ to help all the kids in their 97-block escape the cycle of poverty.
The Conveyor Belt
What Canada, along with many researchers, has found is that early interventions like Head Sta More...
There are two <competing> complementary strategies employed by the HCZ to help all the kids in their 97-block escape the cycle of poverty.
The Conveyor Belt
What Canada, along with many researchers, has found is that early interventions like Head Sta More...
May 02, 2011
Lisa
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I read this book too fast. It was impossible not to; I wanted to know what was coming up next. The potential of dramatically changing the landscape of urban poverty is irresistible. And if this can happen through education, then I am intrigued. Geoffrey Canada's theory is that he will be able to stem the tide of poverty and urban decay by providing continual services and interventions to Harlem's youth from birth on. This book clearly explains why this theory could be our best chance of turnin
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Aug 30, 2010
Jake
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Essential reading for educators and parents alike. Brings up a number of questions about race, class, culture, poverty, testing, nature vs. nature etc. through a commendable social experiment that may very well be introduced full scale in select cities across the US (depending of course on funding).
Reads like an extended Time/Newsweek article, and I would have liked to have more of a personal narrative woven into the storyline. Notes on Sources at the end is a welcome addition and a More...
Reads like an extended Time/Newsweek article, and I would have liked to have more of a personal narrative woven into the storyline. Notes on Sources at the end is a welcome addition and a More...
Aug 23, 2009
Donna
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Paul Tough does an incredible job of detailing Geoffrey Canada's life, his passions, his dreams. While the book is about Canada and the programs he establishes in Harlem, Tough weaves personal stories of families into the mix along with a splash of history about poverty and race relations to give the story an even bigger context.
From this book, you learn that everyone wants something better for their children. You learn that many want something better for other children and spend thei More...
From this book, you learn that everyone wants something better for their children. You learn that many want something better for other children and spend thei More...
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