Activists and Educators

Zehara Eckert

Geoffrey Canada is an African American social activist and educator. This man’s catalyst began early in his career when he had an afterschool program that had more children that wanted to enroll than he could admit. He wasn’t happy with just giving a group of students the opportunity to succeed through Rheedlen’s afterschool program. He wanted to help hundreds and thousands of kids because he didn’t see the point of choosing some kids to save while the rest were failing. Unsatisfied with the scope of Rheedlen, Canada transformed the system and came up with Harlem Children’s Zone. “It wasn’t enough to help out just one part of a child’s life: the project would need to combine educational, social, and medical services” (The Lottery, 4). Following his theory that a child does better if children around him or her were also doing better, Canada and his team went door to door to recruit participants in housing projects. They organized fun events to break resistance in these neighborhoods. This wasn’t working the way Canada wanted so he figured out a way for Harlem Children’s Zone to get more involved which was through charter schools. This Promise Academy Charter School was free of tuition and open by lottery to students. “ We are calling our school Promise Academy because we are making a promise to all of our parents,” he said. “If your child is in our school, we will guarantee that child succeeds. There will be no excuses” (The Lottery, 14). This school was going to require student’s longer hours than a regular school, after school programs that would run late and the school year would continue until July. This charter school was a risk for these parents and kids because they had been promised improved education for their kids before and their options were always limited or fell through. The dilemma these parents faced was which promise to believe.

“The people who run prisons in this country are looking at our third-graders. They look at their test scores each year to begin to predict how many prisons cells will be needed twenty years from now” (The Lottery, 15). “You! Will! Not! Have! Our! Children!” (The Lottery, 15). Alfonso Wyatt was cleverly able to win the hearts and attention of these parents that were skeptical because in their world things do not always turn out like its promised or intended. His speech at the opening lottery celebration of Promise Academy had the right combination of statistics and encouragement to motivate these parents to take responsibility for their kid’s education. However, the opening night of this brilliant charter school lottery pick had its bad moments because there were parents that were desperate to get their kids into a decent school and they weren’t able to, which was sad.

We lose more kids to street violence and drugs then we are able to educate and save. Poverty was also the biggest dilemma that Canada was facing. Poverty is a dividing line between success and failure in this country. Its almost as if we are in favor of keeping the poor poor while we allow the rich to thrive. I understand that poor people need to take responsibility to change their circumstances. However, as this colloquium course demonstrates through the reoccurring themes that are presented in our reading, I believe that the problem of poverty is bigger than the individual. They are our collective problems that need our collective responsibility and cooperation to find a solution. Canada faced many obstacles in his path to create the ideal educational, social, and safe learning alternative to inner city kids. He was eventually able to transform his original organization and make Harlem Children’s Zone a center that would actively follow the academic careers of youths in a 24-block area of Harlem and with the success of the new model, this area has expanded to 97 blocks. Maybe Canada is not evening out the poverty dividing line, but we can definitely say that he is giving those kids a chance.

In the question about “Why are poor people poor?” Many of these studies and scholars had compelling answers to this fundamental question. Although it was harsh, I thought the answer, people stay poor because programs that are designed to help people financially and their bad habits are often perpetuated by these same programs. I can understand why government aid is part of the problem in keeping poor people poor. Government aid is hurting the poor more than it’s helping them through programs like federal welfare, food stamps, unemployment insurance, subsidized housing because it “…encourages poor people to not work, not to marry, and to have children at an early age out of wedlock” (Unequal Childhoods, 27). If these neighborhoods were faced with opportunities that they could use to help themselves and not be so dependent, than they could get jobs, become more educated, and raise their child conscientiously.

A school’s financial resources affect a student’s success but “it was the child’s family background, they said, that made the more significant difference” (Unequal Childhoods, 27). I strongly believe that a child’s home environment plays a huge role in a child’s development academically as well as socially. However, what I found absurd was Herrnstein and Murray’s study about intelligence being inherited. “That intelligence was inherited, and probably genetic; that there were significant inherent racial differences in IQ; and that it was better for society to accept this state of affairs than to try to change it” (Unequal Childhoods, 35). Cognitive and noncognitive abilities are affected by all sorts of outside forces. Hechman’s study pointed out that children who were born into a disadvantage family and then adopted by a wealthier family scored better than the disadvantaged peers on test very similar to previous study which argues that intelligence is not inherited. I don’t believe that people are genetically flawed in intelligence and people have the power to change their intelligence status throughout their lives through education and positive environmental forces. A child’s home environment is critical to his or her educational and social development. Parents that are aware of their child’s activities, parents that talk to their kids, encourage and simulate their learning process through sport teams, instrumental, and art lessons enhance the child’s education and well being.

My favorite Balmy Alley Mural is of the woman holding the chain angrily while the women and children behind her cheer her on and the picture of the beautiful blue eyes. The first picture captured my attention because it was full of emotions and it’s almost as if the anger of the woman comes through the painting. What impresses me about this painting is how two different people are portrayed through the same body. There is a grown woman holding a broken chain in a firm grip and within that woman you see an inner child that’s scared, in tears, and bundled up. There is also a positive light in this painting as well, the women, men, and children cheering her on, it’s as if this woman is fighting their battle too. There are beautiful and distinct colors in this painting. The combination of bright colors, strong emotions, size differences in the people, plants, and the climate make this painting strikingly beautiful. My other favorite painting is the heart shaped face with the big blue eyes. The hands are reaching into the eyes on this person bringing them to the front and making them bigger. The hand shape also keeps the original shape of the face by posing it in a heart shape. The eyes are big, bright blue, and it feels like they can see right through you. The hand pose draws your attention to the eyes. The eyes look sad. The other reason the eyes stand out so much is because of the background contrasting combination colors of yellow, red, orange, and light pink.