Paul Tough: Whatever It Takes

Today on Amazon’s Omnivoracious blog, notes on “Whatever It Takes,” plus a Q&A with me and Geoffrey Canada.

When I saw this summer that Tough had written a book about Canada, my radar screen lit up like the Fourth of July. And the book, Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America, turns out to be excellent: a well-told distillation of a very complex story, and an admiring but level-headed profile of a remarkable man. Canada’s project, the Harlem Children’s Zone, is an incredibly ambitious attempt to make sure that no child really is left behind in the 97-block neighborhood it serves, working with everyone from expectant parents to hard-to-steer adolescents to foster an entire culture that supports the basic task of educating poor kids and breaking the cycle of generational poverty. As the book shows, the project has had some remarkable successes in its first few years, but they haven’t been uniform or easy.

Also on Monday, Geoffrey Canada and I will be talking about Whatever It Takes and the Harlem Children’s Zone at an event sponsored by HCZ and the Hue-Man Bookstore. Details above.

In the Guardian today, from London, an article about President-elect Obama’s campaign promises, and which ones he may choose to tackle first:

ON the corner of 125th Street and Madison Avenue at the heart of Harlem in New York stands an unusual building. It is the bright, modern, six-storey headquarters of the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), a unique community-building project that has transformed the lives of thousands of youngsters from one of America’s most historic – and most downtrodden – black neighbourhoods.

A few blocks away from Harlem landmarks such as the Apollo theatre and Sylvia’s soul food restaurant, the HCZ offers a compelling opportunity to examine one of Obama’s core election pledges.

In a campaign largely filled with blithe generalities, he made a promise that could scarcely have been more specific: “When I’m president, the first part of my plan to combat urban poverty will be to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone in 20 cities across the country,” he said on several occasions. “We will find the money to do this because we can’t afford not to.”

In today’s Jacksonville, Florida, Times-Union, an editorial about the Harlem Children’s Zone, Whatever It Takes and the city’s new “Success Zone”:

Late in the new book describing the Harlem Children’s Zone, Barack Obama is mentioned for the first time.

In July 2007, the future president of the United States gave a speech on urban poverty and held up the Harlem Children’s Zone as a model.

If elected, he would replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone in 20 cities.

Could Jacksonville leap ahead into that select group of cities? All the ingredients are there.

Here’s a Q&A from today’s USA Today, on Geoffrey Canada, the Harlem Children’s Zone, and Whatever It Takes.

Q: The book is as much a primer on poverty as it is a book about education. What’s the most important insight you took away?

A: Poor children turn into poor adults for one simple reason: They lack the skills and the knowledge to compete at a high level. It’s not about a lack of will or native ability, it’s not about a lack of opportunity, it’s about a lack of training. Because of a variety of problems in their homes and their schools and their communities, disadvantaged children never get a chance to learn the skills they need to succeed. The good news is that if you find a way to teach them those skills — and that’s entirely possible, though it takes an innovative approach and a lot of hard work — they’re going to have a much better shot at a successful life.

Sara Mead, an early-education expert at the New America Foundation, has an interesting essay/blog post about Geoffrey Canada, the Harlem Children’s Zone, and Whatever It Takes (though she hasn’t read the book yet).

I’ll be on “Black Politics with Chris Owens” on Air America this morning discussing Whatever It Takes and the Harlem Children’s Zone. Check this link in a few days to download the audio.

Over at the TPMCafé Book Club, Alex Kotlowitz posts a particularly incisive (as well as generous) collection of thoughts about Whatever It Takes and the Harlem Children’s Zone.

Over on Slate yesterday, I laid out my case for the Harlem Children’s Zone.

Here’s video of the speech I mentioned in today’s Times Magazine article, the speech in which Barack Obama explains his plans to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone in 20 cities across the country. Text here.