On Dec. 3, I’ll be at the Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, giving a keynote speech at a conference on health disparities organized by Leadership Education in Adolescent Health, an interdisciplinary program at Johns Hopkins University. The theme of the conference is “Health and the Urban Family: Promoting Healthy Futures for Urban Youth.”
Archive for October, 2010
Johns Hopkins conference
Sunday, October 31st, 2010Boise conference
Sunday, October 31st, 2010On Nov. 19, I’ll be at Boise State University, giving a keynote address at the 2010 Early Years Conference, organized by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. There’s a brochure with details available for download here [PDF].
Habit 6
Sunday, October 31st, 2010On We Blog the World, a “blog network dedicated to global storytelling,” an unusual review of “Whatever It Takes” — unusual in that it looks at the book through the lens of management strategy:
Rarely do you read an example of entrepreneurism at work where you get motivated by how a fellow entrepreneur deals with the challenge of blind alleys. … Geoffrey Canada’s persistence in chasing down problems is entrepreneurship in action. Many of his habits are similar to the process outlined in Talent is Over Rated — continual skill development, and Super Crunchers — data-driven decision making for designing adjusting process innovations. Finally his whole goal is a great example of Habit 6 in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People — creative co-operation.
Education Innovation Summit
Sunday, October 31st, 2010Next Saturday morning, Nov. 6, I’ll be in Shaker Heights, Ohio, taking part in a panel called “Leading Journalists Assess the Progress of School Reform.” The panel is part of the Education Innovation Summit organized by the Hathaway Brown school. As this story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer explains,
“The idea is to bring together a lot of talented people and have them share their perspectives on new and better ways of educating,” said William Christ, the head of school. “We’re thinking it will have a ripple effect and contribute to the national conversation.”
Canada in Milwaukee
Sunday, October 31st, 2010On Oct. 22, Geoffrey Canada gave a keynote speech in Milwaukee at the conference of the Alliance for Children and Families. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that “Canada addressed some of the questions he’s faced about the practicality of applying his Harlem Children’s Zone model to the rest of the nation.”
“There is a double standard in this country,” Canada said, adding that when people ask about non-educational services at Harlem Children’s Zone and how they affect kids’ scores, he admits they don’t. But he asks why they want their kids to see the dentist and play tennis.
“We know these things are important; we shouldn’t have to justify it,” Canada said.
By building communities around children, especially those in the most challenging circumstances, Canada said you can foster a sense of optimism in children. Educational success will follow.
“In saving kids, you got to be prepared to save families,” Canada said.
Accompanying the article was a column by Alan J. Borsuk, who took issue with some of Canada’s strategies, but concluded,
[T]here is something to what Canada says. The schools in Milwaukee that are most in line with what he advocates really are different from your general run of struggling public schools. The energy and dedication put into the pursuit of getting the students to succeed is at the core of the difference.
Maybe the people running and teaching in the large number of schools in Milwaukee with weak results should rest less easily, should be pushing harder to find better ways to do things, and should expect more of themselves. There are efforts under way to overhaul some of those schools, but I’m quite sure they are not as ambitious as Canada would want.
Bill Gates Q&A
Sunday, October 31st, 2010Last weekend, Parade magazine ran a Q&A that I did with Bill Gates in September on teaching, schools, and “Waiting for Superman.” This week in the magazine, there’s a response from the president of the National Education Association.
Athens talk
Friday, October 15th, 2010On December 2, at 5:30 pm, I’ll be giving a talk in Athens, Georgia, at the University of Georgia chapel. Details here. The talk is connected to the city’s Whatever It Takes initiative, which was recently awarded a Promise Neighborhood planning grant. (I wrote about the Athens initiative — and embedded a video featuring Michael Stipe — back in July.)