Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone was on 60 Minutes last night

I missed the 60 Minutes segment last night on Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone, but fortunately nearly all of the segment was on the CBS website at: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/11/60minutes/main1611936.shtml

 

Below is the text and be sure on the website to click on both links: "The Harlem Children's Zone" and "Bradley's Reporter's Notebook". 

 

(For more on Canada and the HCZ, see this lengthy NYT Magazine article from June 2004: http://www.ccebos.org/nytimes.geoffreycanada.6.20.04.html)

 

Both Canada and Ed Bradley make a powerful case for needing more good schools -- too bad Bradley didn't come right out and say, "But there will be no more such schools in all of NY State unless the State Legislature gets an ounce of courage and lifts the cap on the number of charter schools.  Until then, there will continue to be these cruel lotteries, in which parents' hopes for a good education and future for their children are crushed."

 

Canada understands this very deeply -- in fact, he started crying when he said this to Bradley:

"After my first lottery, I said, we're gonna have to open more schools. You sit there and watch those parents, it's the saddest thing I’ve seen. It really is," Canada tells Bradley.

Gotta love Canada's courage in speaking the truth here:

the Promise Academy, where the school day is longer, summer vacation lasts only three weeks, and many kids go to school on Saturdays. Canada is able to run the school his way, free from the restrictions of the public education system that he says has been failing Harlem’s children for so long.

 

"We could not run a school under the current rules and regulations with the unions. It’s impossible. It’s just impossible. You can't fire teachers. Look, we fired three teachers last year. Ed, I will guarantee you we fired more teachers than the whole island of Manhattan in all the public schools," says Canada. "Now that's crazy. You come in, you teach. The kids all fail. You get to go home at three, and you get summers off. Now what kinda job is that?" he asks.

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The Harlem Children's Zone

How One Man's Vision To Revitalize Harlem Starts With Children

(Page 1 of 3)

NEW YORK, May 14, 2006

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(CBS) Quote "I’m prepared to do anything to keep these kids on the right track." Geoffrey Canada

(CBS) Harlem has long been the spiritual capital of black America. In its heyday during the Harlem renaissance, it was a wellspring of politics, music and art. But over the years, the neighborhood suffered a steady decline and came to symbolize the worst of urban poverty and decay. Today, there’s a new renaissance under way in Harlem, with the construction of new buildings, businesses and schools.

One of the people leading the charge is Geoffrey Canada. As correspondent Ed Bradley reports, his vision, quite simply, is to save children, and he has amassed a staggering amount of private money — more than $100,000,000 — to realize his goal. His testing ground is a 60-block area in central Harlem that he calls "The Harlem Children's Zone."

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The Harlem Children’s Zone is an area that covers less than one square mile and is home to some 10,000 children. On the ground, the neighborhood is slowly coming back to life, with newly renovated townhouses standing side by side with buildings that have fallen victim to violence and despair, local businesses next to national chains. But despite all the renewal, nearly all the children live in poverty — and two-thirds of them score below grade level on standardized tests. That’s why Canada, a graduate of Bowdoin College and the Harvard School of Education, has claimed this territory as his own and is trying to save it, block by block, child by child.

He has made a bold promise to the parents who live in the zone.

"If your child comes to this school, we will guarantee that we will get your child into college. We will be with you with your child from the moment they enter our school till the moment they graduate from college," Canada vowed during a speech.

Canada’s ambitious experiment aims to prove that poor kids from the inner city can learn just as well as affluent kids from the other side of America. He has flooded the zone with social, medical and educational services that are available for free to all the children who live here...