TONIGHT ON THE TERRORDOME: Geoffrey Canada on Saving American Children through Education
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While it’s widely understood that without education, most young people cannot hope to enjoy a future of health, productivity and civic engagement, the United States continues to deny millions of its children the quality of education it lavishes on others.
Whatever the official reasons are for such disparity which effectively dooms millions to a shorter, more painful, and more economically deprived life, two things are clear. The students hurt by such policies are disproportionately poor, and disproportionately of Afrikan, indigenous and Latin-indigenous descent.
But while many are content to blame the elites for creating and maintaining this factory of inequality and despair, some have sworn to change that system.
Born in 1952, Geoffrey Canada is an educational crusader and founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone. Himself a child of the South Bronx, Canada learned early in life that doom awaited those who were unprepared for their futures. The Zone he and others established sought to provide for its constituents the opportunities widely available for middle class children, including services and activities after school ended for the day or for the week.
“In the late 1990s, HCZ ran a pilot project that brought a range of support services to a single block. The idea was to address all the problems that poor families were facing: from crumbling apartments to failing schools, from violent crime to chronic health problems.
“In 1997, the agency began a network of programs for a 24-block area: the Harlem Children's Zone Project. In 2007, the Zone Project grew to almost 100 blocks and served 7,400 children and over 4,100 adults.
“Over the years, the agency introduced several ground-breaking efforts: in 2000, The Baby College parenting workshops; in 2001, the Harlem Gems pre-school program; also in 2001, the HCZ Asthma Initiative, which teaches families to better manage the disease; in 2004, the Promise Academy, a high-quality public charter school; and in 2006, an anti-obesity program to help children stay healthy.”The Zone school features a longer school day and a longer school year; beginning in 2004, entrance to the Zone’s Promise Academy kindergarten and grade 6 classes was selected by lottery.
Geoffrey Canada, one of the key builders of the Zone, has been widely honoured for his work, including through the $250,000 Heinz Award, a prize similar to the MacArthur “genius” fellowship. Numerous universities and colleges including Harvard have granted him honourary degrees, and he’s appeared widely on American news media. He’s the author of two books:
• Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America (1995)
• Reaching Up for Manhood: Transforming the Lives of Boys in America (1998)
Monday, December 15, 2008
I don't care if this one's a photo-op. This is what photo-ops SHOULD do... set a positive example.
Director Ernest Dickerson sent me the following pictures and text of the Obamas on American Thanksgiving.
Could these be considering shameless photo-opping?
Yeah, I guess. But then, so could any good deed if photographed. I'd argue that wealthy, powerful people have a duty to be photographed doing good deeds, in order to set an example (with great power there must...).
Yes, of course, food banks are not revolutionary (although the Black Panther Party had "Survival Programmes Pending the Revolution" including Free Breakfast for Children), and we must end the cause of hunger, rather than dealing exclusively with hunger as a effect. But hungry people can't survive on political theory. Hungry people need food today.
Of course we need to monitor in detail how the Obama White House will address the cause of poverty--namely, economic exploitation by the rich of everyone else, especially the poor. I'd expect his White House, backed as it was by the super-wealthy, has no intention
of ending poverty, since poverty is the necessary feeding grounds of
the wealthy, that is, the only way to create wealth is by creating
poverty.
But for today--TODAY--I'm happy to see these pictures. This aint W holding a plastic turkey for his war-makers in the Occupied Territory called Iraq. This is a Kenyan-American, the Emperor of the world, handing out food to people who need it, with his family. And while this deed makes me overlook not one iota of his service of the Empire and its oligarchs, I nevertheless am heartened to see these images.
The text below comes from The Huffington Post.
"CHICAGO
- President-elect Barrack Obama and his wife took their daughters to
work at a food bank on the day before Thanksgiving, saying they wanted
to show the girls the meaning of the holiday, especially when so many
people are struggling.
"Ten-year-old
Malia and 7-year-old Sasha joined their parents to shake hands and give
holiday wishes to hundreds of people who had been lined up for hours at
the food bank on Chicago 's south side.
"Sasha
wore a pink stocking hat over her pigtails and Malia had on a purple
striped hat as the family handed out wrapped chickens to the needy inthe
chilly outdoor courtyard. Those seeking food on Wednesday at St.
Columbanus also received boxes with potatoes, oranges, fresh bread,
peanut butter, canned goods, oatmeal, spaghetti and coffee.
"The
president-elect, dressed casually in a leather jacket, black scarf and
khaki pants, was in a jovial mood, calling out 'happy thanksgiving'
andtelling everyone 'you can call me Barack.'
"He
told reporters that he wants the girls 'to learn the importance of how
fortunate they are, and to make sure they're giving back.'
"The soon-to-be first lady said the Obamas wanted to give their children 'an understanding of what giving and Thanksgiving is all about.'
"The
Obama family's activities in the courtyard quickly drew the attention
of schoolchildren whose windows overlooked the courtyard. They put up a
sign against the glass that read: 'We love our prez' and screamed when
the president-elect waved to them.
"Obama
then turned to his wife and suggested they go visit the kids. Secret
Service agents, looking surprised, disappeared inside the building to
accommodate his request.
"Minutes
later, hundreds of children were brought down to the school auditorium,
and Obama loped onstage as they screamed and cheered.
"'I
just wanted to come by and wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving,' he
said. He then asked the children what they would be eating for
Thanksgiving dinner."
(I don't know who wrote the following text.)
"So
let's recap.He took his kids to work in the cold? Instead of getting
someone to line up and dish the gifts? Instead of telling them 'You are
kids of a VIP. Therefore there are things that you can't do.
"To
show the kids that people are suffering? Yes, that people are
suffering? They have to live understanding the importance of giving back
to the community.Let us learn from this great family and for those who
have children, this is a wonderful example of raising our kids.Peace
out!"
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