is now up. My interview starts at about 30:00.
Archive for January, 2009
WAMU audio
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009Baltimore City Paper
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009This week the Baltimore City Paper reports on Barack Obama, Whatever It Takes, and the movement to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone in Baltimore:
Like Obama, Canada worked in urban communities before founding his Children’s Zone. Unlike Obama, he grew up poor and in a violent neighborhood. The problem as he saw it then in New York–and in cities like Baltimore–was that all the various interventions by social programs, schools, recreation centers, little leagues, and the like, was that they were all scattershot, often giving help in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yes, through the superhuman effort of a social worker here, a school teacher or coach there, you would have the classic story of the ghetto kid who made good–like Canada himself, who made it to Bowdoin College. Those feel-good stories, however, would never and will never change the communities themselves or the lives of the vast majority of their inhabitants.
Kojo Nnamdi Show
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009Tomorrow at about 12:30 pm, I’ll be on the Kojo Nnamdi show on WAMU public radio in Washington, D.C., talking about Barack Obama’s urban-policy plans and the Harlem Children’s Zone.
Mother Jones
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
I’ve got an article in the new issue of Mother Jones on Barack Obama’s poverty platform:
The bigger question is whether Obama, once in office, will conclude that the government can’t now afford this kind of bold initiative. It may be that the plan will be put on hold for a year or two, until the worst of the downturn passes. But Obama, drawing on the research of his Hyde Park neighbor, the economist James Heckman, has made the point that programs like the Harlem Children’s Zone are not giveaways; they’re investments that will pay for themselves in reduced spending on welfare, job training, and the criminal justice system. As Obama put it, “We will find the money to do this because we can’t afford not to.”
[Photo by Alex Tehrani]
Daily Herald Review
Monday, January 19th, 2009The Daily Herald in Provo, Utah, reviews Whatever It Takes:
Tough’s engaging prose and his profiles of students, parents and HCZ staff members make “Whatever it Takes” a hopeful and compelling narrative.
American Prospect Review
Sunday, January 18th, 2009Last September, the American Prospect published a review by David Kirp of “Whatever It Takes.” It’s now online. Kirp writes:
Can Canada make good on his guarantee that Promise Academy, and the additional academies on HCZ’s drawing boards, will rewrite the failure script for Harlem’s children? For starters, will it improve the lives of the 100 kindergarteners and 100 sixth-graders who enrolled in 2004? Tough, an editor at The New York Times Magazine, tells this story with the what-happens-next pacing of a good mystery and the richness of a fine ethnography, weaving together in lapidary prose the strands of a complex narrative.
Blog Posts
Thursday, January 15th, 2009A few recent blog reviews of “Whatever It Takes,” from TeacherJay, Jonah Lehrer, the Feminist Review, and sociologist Jon Witt.
Chicago School Policy Luncheon
Thursday, January 15th, 2009Next Wednesday, January 21, I’ll be speaking at a Chicago Schools Policy Luncheon at the Union League Club of Chicago. The web site of one of the sponsors describes the event as:
The third in a three-part series sponsored by Business and Professional People for the Public Interest and Catalyst Chicago, with the Consortium on Chicago School Research. The series title is “Is Great Teaching Enough: The impact of school-community connections on the achievement gap.” Paul Tough, author of “Whatever It Takes” on the Harlem Children’s Zone; Nancy Aardema, Logan Square Neighborhood Association; and Chris Brown, Local Initiatives Support Coalition, will talk about “What It Takes” to build community.
City Journal Review
Thursday, January 15th, 2009Kay S. Hymowitz reviews “Whatever It Takes” for the City Journal.