By Paul Tough
Houghton Mifflin Company
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 President-elect Barack Obama has already stated that the federal government will help set up twenty similar systems throughout the country.
Harlem Children’s Zone is a grassroots effort that began as a “Baby College” to give poor, new parents the same tools and knowledge that middle class parents are being bombarded with, and often take for granted. The curriculum includes explanation of child development: how babies learn, what sort of stimulation and interaction they need at different ages, and discipline techniques. The teachers are from the same ethnic cultures as the parents, and come from similar economic and lifestyle backgrounds. Harlem Children’s Zone has grown from its inception to include a fully functioning preschool, elementary, and middle school. The promise that Canada made to parents was that he would get their children into college, and he proposes to do this via a “conveyor belt.”
Canada’s “conveyor belt” strategy refers to working with the children from the time of their birth in “Baby College.” They then move on to programs for children before they enter school, and Harlem Children’s Zone keeps working with them throughout their schooling right up until they are ready to enter college. In this way, Harlem Children’s Zone is a long-term project that strives to be active in educating the child from birth through high school. By starting at birth and working with children continuously, Canada believes that they can be just as successful as children from more privileged upbringings.
Paul Tough is an editor at the New York Times and has followed Canada’s work from its beginning. Tough writes his own eyewitness accounts of events, and shares information gleaned from parents, teachers, principals, and board members. The history of Harlem Children’s Zone is thoroughly laid out for readers—including the trials, unsuccessful ideas, and mistakes made. Tough includes simplified explanations of many studies about children’s development and educational needs, looking at the data differentials for children of color and in poverty versus middle class, white children. The history of both racial and economic disparity in the education system in the United States is laid bare for us to examine and learn from.
Harlem Children’s Zone also includes health clinics and other support services in order to meet the complete spectrum of needs for the Harlem community. Community members know that if they need help of any sort, Harlem Children’s Zone is the first stop to get connected to the resources available.
A concern I have about the book is in how it may be interpreted by its readers. Many communities, including my own, are looking to Canada’s system as a one-size-fits-all solution. In fact, Harlem Children’s Zone offers a three-day tour for organizations that want to explore all aspects of its service model. There could be problems for communities that selectively incorporate aspects of the model without understanding the way the different programs works best together or, alternatively, who are not ready to be flexible to accommodate unique needs or challenges that may arise.
There is also the danger of a “savior” mentality being perpetuated by organizations that fail to appreciate that Canada’s success owes much to the intimate first-hand understanding he and his staff have of the community they work in. Service providers have to accept that successful community change must come out of the community itself, not be imposed upon it.
Harlem Children’s Zone remains a work-in-progress; as the first generation to benefit from the entire conveyor belt has not yet graduated from high school, it is difficult to gauge the full success of the programs. Canada may not have all the answers, but there is much that can be learned and applied from his work thus far to guarantee that all children truly do have equal opportunities, and are prepared to succeed both in school and in life.
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