< A Taste Of Success

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Heard on Tell Me More

November 6, 2008 - MICHEL MARTIN, host:

Finally, the word "historic" has been used so much in recent days, I'm sure many people are already tired of it. But one thing seems clear: this election has broadened the idea of many people in this country and around the world about what is possible. So it's fitting that our This I Believe essay today comes from a man who's made it his mission to uncover the potential of kids who many people ignore or dismiss: educator Geoffrey Canada.

Canada founded the Harlem Children's Zone in New York. It's a bold educational project with two charter schools and a host of programs aimed at making academic success the standard for kids in the community. His own is the focus of Paul Tough's recent book, "Whatever It Takes." The author and Geoffrey Canada spoke with us back in September. They talked to us about what it takes to try to raise the expectations and performance of kids living in one of the country's most disadvantaged neighborhoods. With more, here's This I Believe curator, Jay Allison. Hi, Jay.

JAY ALLISON: Geoffrey Canada told us that most kids need structure and discipline, love and guidance. But when you can give them all of that and they still say, no, no, thank you, those are the kids he gets excited about, and it's those kids that both test and confirm his belief. Here's Geoffrey Canada with his essay for This I Believe.

Mr. GEOFFREY CANADA: When I say I believe all children can learn, people sometimes misunderstand. Because I have been working with poor, minority children in Harlem for the last 25 years, some people think I am talking about good kids in bad environments, that if you give a bright kid from a poor family a good educational support system, he or she can succeed. That's absolutely true, but that's not what I mean.

You see, I truly believe that all kids can learn. I believe it. I've seen it. I've even tasted it. Back in 1975, when I was coming out of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, I worked in a summer camp in Ossipee, New Hampshire, for kids with the absolute toughest problems: emotionally disturbed kids, autistic kids, oppositional ADHD kids, kids that everyone, even their parents, had given up on.

One of the things that I and the staff would do is cook with the kids. These children didn't know baking powder from table salt, but once they had eaten a warm biscuit out of the oven smeared with melted butter and a drizzle of maple syrup, they were very motivated to learn how to make some more. Suddenly, kids who couldn't sit still or focus were carefully eyeballing ingredients as we measured them out, learning the simple math and spelling lessons we could slip in along the way. By the end of the summer, I remember parents breaking down and crying when they saw the progress their children had made.

The biscuits, by the way, were delicious, and I can still remember the taste of them today, and more importantly, I can still remember the lesson they taught me: that if we, the adults, can find the right motivation for a child, there's hope for that child's education.

Today, I run two charter schools and a series of educational programs, and we work with over 10,000 kids a year. I make sure that every single one of my staff understands that I don't accept excuses about kids not learning. In my shop, if a child does not succeed, it means the adults around him or her have failed. That's because the kids with the really tough problems are not going to suddenly start teaching themselves. I believe that we adults have to help them, and that starts with looking hard at each child, finding out what excites them and exploiting that excitement shamelessly.

When I was growing up poor in the South Bronx, one of four boys raised by a single mom, I probably looked like I was heading nowhere, hanging out on the street with my friends and getting into fights and trouble. And I would have ended up dead or in jail like many of my friends if it had not been for a couple of teachers and family members who saw something underneath my teenage tough-guy act. They spotted my fascination with reading, starting with "Green Eggs and Ham," and later with "Manchild in the Promised Land," and they made sure I had great books to read.

Because of that, I have dedicated my life to going back into the most devastated communities in America and making sure kids like me don't get written off. My first taste of success came way back at that summer camp in Ossipee, New Hampshire. It came with a plate of steaming, hot biscuits that tasted so good, I believe they could have brought a tear to your eye.

ALLISON: Geoffrey Canada with his essay for This I Believe. Michel, we asked Geoffrey if he ever gets discouraged and he said, no, he doesn't. He says he drives his wife crazy because he never gets down and every morning he's ready to go again and take on this challenge of teaching kids who most people have already given up on. And as always, Michel, we hope Tell Me More listeners will accept our challenge and submit their essays to our series. For This I Believe, I'm Jay Allison. Back to you, Michel.

MARTIN: Thank you, Jay. Jay Allison is co-editor with Dan Gediman, John Gregory and Viki Merrick of the new book, "This I Believe II: More Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women." You can find out information about writing for this series and all the essays we've aired at the This I Believe page on npr.org.

And that's our program for today. I am Michel Martin, and this is Tell Me More from NPR News. Let's talk more tomorrow.

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