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Books : Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America
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Rating: 
- Whatever It Takes
This is both an important and an excellent book. Canada's own book staked his claims in a forceful, eloquent and caring way. Paul Tough's WHATEVER IT TAKES attempts to present objectively some of the performance outcome data of Canada's concept, both in a quantitative and anecdotal way. It also reports on President-elect Obama's take on the concept and his hopes for a Federal pilot study in the immediate near term. This concept is as of yet, formative and untested; this book attempts to take a first hard look at Canada's great hopes, and it points to a more objective look at educational policy outcomes by the new administration.
Rating: - Best Nonfiction Book I've Read in Years
I find it hard to review this book without parroting some of the blurbs on the back cover, from the likes of Bill Clinton and Ira Glass.Paul Tough's exploration of the Harlem Children's Zone and Geoffrey Canada's work reads like an uplifting, thought-provoking novel. This should be required reading for anyone interested in improving the situation in the US around poverty, education, race, and urban policy. Reading this book is particularly important now, as President-Elect Obama has pledged to expand the HCZ model to 20 cities around the country. This is a thoughtful, realistic, in-depth exploration of some of the most risky and effective programs out there.
Rating: - Inspiring Geoffrey Canada
I heard about this book from NPR's This American Life. Geoffrey Canada is inspiring. I look forward to seeing how his assembly-line concept performs over the long term. Good read for anyone who's interested in addressing the root of a problem, not just a panacea.
Rating: - Detailed, Provocative, and Important
Graduation from four year college is the ultimate goal for the kids of the Harlem Children's Zone. In Harlem, this lofty goal often requires overcoming intergenerational poverty, a community that does not always value education, and families rife with questionable parenting tactics and frequent run-ins with the law.
--Detailed--
This kind of goal could not even begin to be accomplished if the attitude was not: "Whatever it Takes." This book is an great read. It intersperses candid character portraits with hard statistics about poverty. Even if you were not a great writer you could make a worthy book by just having spent the five years studying what Paul Tough studied. But Tough is a good writer who can illuminate historical and philosophical perspectives, while still keeping the story centered around what is actually happening in Harlem right now.
The book concentrates on Geoffrey Canada who is the charismatic leader of the Harlem Children's Zone. Tough is a Canada fan, and most likely for good reasons. Canada is tireless, has his heart in the right place, has big and concrete plans, and is likable. Not to take away from the book (whose subtitle (whose subtitle reads: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America), but was it really necessary to give as much time in the book to his character? He is obviously instrumental in the Harlem Children's Zone, but the book sometimes reads like a biography of a great person instead of about a program to transform a neighborhood.
--Provocative--
Again, not to disparage this great book, but I would have liked to hear more about some of the political and philosophical debates that surely surround the Harlem Children's Zone. How does Canada's idea that the Children's Zone will only work via charter schools fit in with our society's great ideal to give all students equal educational opportunity? Should charter schools replace all traditional schools in areas that cry out to have the cycle of poverty broken? What do critics of standardized testing have to say about the goals of the Children's Zone schools?
It is testimony to the richness of the book that these questions can even get formulated with such detail.
--Important--
The ultimate goal of the Zone might even be more grand than putting kids through college -- it is to enlarge the possibilities of all people who live in or close to poverty.
This is a superb book that lays out the fundamentals of a program that holds great promise to bring about needed change. "Whatever it Takes" puts real stories, great perspective, and hope into the hands of readers all across the political spectrum. Armed with this book America is one step closer to resolving the issues of inequality and poverty that plague our country.
Rating: - Inspiring Story
Tough's account of Promise Academy and Canada's vision tugs at your heartstrings. It's an inspiring story that left me wondering if such a model could work in our multicultural city.
- Whatever It TakesThis is both an important and an excellent book. Canada's own book staked his claims in a forceful, eloquent and caring way. Paul Tough's WHATEVER IT TAKES attempts to present objectively some of the performance outcome data of Canada's concept, both in a quantitative and anecdotal way. It also reports on President-elect Obama's take on the concept and his hopes for a Federal pilot study in the immediate near term. This concept is as of yet, formative and untested; this book attempts to take a first hard look at Canada's great hopes, and it points to a more objective look at educational policy outcomes by the new administration.
Rating:
- Best Nonfiction Book I've Read in YearsI find it hard to review this book without parroting some of the blurbs on the back cover, from the likes of Bill Clinton and Ira Glass.Paul Tough's exploration of the Harlem Children's Zone and Geoffrey Canada's work reads like an uplifting, thought-provoking novel. This should be required reading for anyone interested in improving the situation in the US around poverty, education, race, and urban policy. Reading this book is particularly important now, as President-Elect Obama has pledged to expand the HCZ model to 20 cities around the country. This is a thoughtful, realistic, in-depth exploration of some of the most risky and effective programs out there.
Rating:
- Inspiring Geoffrey CanadaI heard about this book from NPR's This American Life. Geoffrey Canada is inspiring. I look forward to seeing how his assembly-line concept performs over the long term. Good read for anyone who's interested in addressing the root of a problem, not just a panacea.
Rating:
- Detailed, Provocative, and ImportantGraduation from four year college is the ultimate goal for the kids of the Harlem Children's Zone. In Harlem, this lofty goal often requires overcoming intergenerational poverty, a community that does not always value education, and families rife with questionable parenting tactics and frequent run-ins with the law.
--Detailed--
This kind of goal could not even begin to be accomplished if the attitude was not: "Whatever it Takes." This book is an great read. It intersperses candid character portraits with hard statistics about poverty. Even if you were not a great writer you could make a worthy book by just having spent the five years studying what Paul Tough studied. But Tough is a good writer who can illuminate historical and philosophical perspectives, while still keeping the story centered around what is actually happening in Harlem right now.
The book concentrates on Geoffrey Canada who is the charismatic leader of the Harlem Children's Zone. Tough is a Canada fan, and most likely for good reasons. Canada is tireless, has his heart in the right place, has big and concrete plans, and is likable. Not to take away from the book (whose subtitle (whose subtitle reads: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America), but was it really necessary to give as much time in the book to his character? He is obviously instrumental in the Harlem Children's Zone, but the book sometimes reads like a biography of a great person instead of about a program to transform a neighborhood.
--Provocative--
Again, not to disparage this great book, but I would have liked to hear more about some of the political and philosophical debates that surely surround the Harlem Children's Zone. How does Canada's idea that the Children's Zone will only work via charter schools fit in with our society's great ideal to give all students equal educational opportunity? Should charter schools replace all traditional schools in areas that cry out to have the cycle of poverty broken? What do critics of standardized testing have to say about the goals of the Children's Zone schools?
It is testimony to the richness of the book that these questions can even get formulated with such detail.
--Important--
The ultimate goal of the Zone might even be more grand than putting kids through college -- it is to enlarge the possibilities of all people who live in or close to poverty.
This is a superb book that lays out the fundamentals of a program that holds great promise to bring about needed change. "Whatever it Takes" puts real stories, great perspective, and hope into the hands of readers all across the political spectrum. Armed with this book America is one step closer to resolving the issues of inequality and poverty that plague our country.
Rating:
- Inspiring StoryTough's account of Promise Academy and Canada's vision tugs at your heartstrings. It's an inspiring story that left me wondering if such a model could work in our multicultural city.