Find quotes and places in the text that point to:
What motivates Canada?
What are some of his personal ethical challenges/inner debates?
Can you relate to anyone you have met in your service-learning or to your own experience, thus far?
The second chapter, "Unequal Childhoods," chronicles some of the history of the debate surrounding the causes of generational poverty: "Canada had come up against one of the most nettlesome questions in all of social science: Why are poor people poor?" (23). It is interesting to note how non-objective science can actually be, depending on who is designing the tool of measurement, deciding what should be measured, and how this data should be interpreted--on top of all of this, politics also enters the picture. Paul Tough does a good job of laying out some of the different approaches and attitudes to the issue. What most surprises you? What appears finally to be fair and less biased accounts of some of the root causes of poverty? Can you relate any of these findings to your service-learning or why your community partner organization exists?
Watch Canada on 60 Minutes
The poor children of Harlem, New York motivate Geoffrey Canada into assisting them into finding a brighter future. I believe much of why Canada helps them is because he sees himself in their eyes; they grew up similar to how he did. They both were, “…cut off from American mainstream…futures constrained by substandard schools, unstable families, and a segregated city.” (Tough 2) With that being said, it is obvious that whatever program he had supported or created himself, he cared most about the, "...overall impact he was able to have on children he was trying to serve." (Tough 3) However, it was rather difficult to try reaching out to all the children of Harlem because his creation of the charter school, Promise Academy, only allowed for 200 students to be accommodated, half of being in kindergarten and the other half in the sixth grade. It was difficult for Canada to put children in a waiting list because it was hard to linger on the idea that parents have to face the odds of their child getting a chance to “…good life just increase exponentially.” (Though 18)
ReplyDeleteIn my service learning, Phoenix Academy, I see that the kids are being offered a chance for education, just like what Geoffrey Canada is offering in his program Promise Academy. However, right now the school is going broke, and they are trying to get charities to help fund for their school.
Paulynn adds:
ReplyDeleteThe poor children of Harlem, New York motivate Geoffrey Canada into assisting them into finding a brighter future. I believe much of why Canada helps them is because he sees himself in their eyes; they grew up similar to how he did. They both were, “…cut off from American mainstream…futures constrained by substandard schools, unstable families, and a segregated city.” (Tough 2) With that being said, it is obvious that whatever program he had supported or created himself, he cared most about the, "...overall impact he was able to have on children he was trying to serve." (Tough 3) However, it was rather difficult to try reaching out to all the children of Harlem because his creation of the charter school, Promise Academy, only allowed for 200 students to be accommodated, half of being in kindergarten and the other half in the sixth grade. It was difficult for Canada to put children in a waiting list because it was hard to linger on the idea that parents have to face the odds of their child getting a chance to “…good life just increase exponentially.” (Though 18)
In my service learning, Phoenix Academy, I see that the kids are being offered a chance for education, just like what Geoffrey Canada is offering in his program Promise Academy. However, right now the school is going broke, and they are trying to get charities to help fund for their school. Nonetheless, the students attending the schools are going through the same struggles in their homes. Students are suffering hardships and are trying to fix their lives by obtaining an education.
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ReplyDelete“Were not interested in saving a hundred kids…or even a thousand…we want to be able to talk how you save kids by the tens of thousands, because that’s how were losing them. Were losing kids by the tens of thousands. “ (pg. 19) I believe this idea is a crucial concept because we as people when trying to help feel as if it is our responsibility alone to help everyone when realistically we can only do so much. It's tough to be able to help one person and have another one standing right in front of you,needing assistance with no one to give it to them. Geoffrey Canada has great and logical aspirations with what he has set up for the children of Harlem, but in order for this to work, it mist spread across the world. I believe this is idea is similar to asking why do poor people stay poor. It's all about resources. If you're born poor, you obviously don't have much but yourself to pull you out of that situation and with the world we live in today, that's not always enough. The saying, "it takes money, to make money" is what reinforces that thought for me and the drugs, crime, and violence usually sprout from that. You have to start somewhere and these kids have to start from the bottom and they see the easiest way to get things is to take them. If we educate our future generations, they'll have developed the necessary skills to survive gradually and be able to teach others.
ReplyDeleteThe students at County are a perfect example. They have no control of their backgrounds and where they come from, they just make the best of what they have. From a "outside looking in perspective" they probably receive a lot of judgement and prejudices, but until you are in their position it's difficult to fully sympathize. I understand there is a better path for them to be on, but I also understand that they didn't start themselves on this path (for the most part). Maybe if they were given the tools of learning I was so lucky to get, they'd be where I am, and vice versa. If I had never get involved in bay area enrichment programs to better my knowledge, I could easily be sitting where they are. It's all about the resources you have and the people you know, and the connections.