Geoffrey Canada believes the mission of educators is to ensure that every child has the capacity to succeed in school. A nationally recognized innovator in the field of education, Canada brought this message and his decades of wisdom and insight to University of Louisville faculty, staff and community educators at the fourth annual President’s Forum on Inclusive Excellence held Aug. 28 at UofL. Hosted by the Office of Institutional Equity, Canada was the keynote speaker for the event.
Every child can rise
As president of Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), a world-renowned education and poverty-fighting organization based in New York City, Canada has made it his life’s work to help young people from under-resourced communities succeed. Starting as a one-block pilot project in the 1990s, HCZ now serves more than 34,000 students and families living in a 97-block area of Central Harlem in New York City.
Growing up in an impoverished south Bronx neighborhood, Canada said he has seen firsthand the result of young people not receiving quality education.
“It’s life and death,” he said. “My mother had four sons, but only three made it. At 72-years-old, not one of my friends I grew up with is alive today,” said Canada. “It means the ability to take care of your family or fall into a black hole that sucks you in and destroys lives.”
Canada’s keynote speech was a commentary on the state-of-affairs in education and a rally cry to educators to change their perspective on what it means to stand up for every child.
Aftermath of COVID-19
Today’s educators, schools and students face daunting challenges, many exacerbated by the upheaval and trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Learning loss is real, and many kids have not caught up academically and never will unless we do something,” said Canada. “We may think things have returned to normal, but our children have not recovered. What we are doing is passing along a whole generation of kids who don’t have the ability to be college ready.”
Canada said that makes it more important than ever to offer programs like UofL’s newly launched Cardinals Rising, which reaches out to youth in middle and high school to equip and nurture them with essential skills, mentoring, supports and networks they need to be ready for the higher education experience and success in life.
“We need to give these young people just a sniff of the American dream so they can believe there is a way for them to make it,” he said.
Through his hard work with the Harlem Children’s Zone, Canada’s efforts have resulted in placement of nearly 1,000 kids in college – kids who never thought college could be part of their future. Canada said changing expectations is key to shifting that culture from believing college is not for them to believing college is definitely for them.
“When 1,000 kids come home in the summer from college, they see people they know and start to think, ‘If he can go to college, I could go to college.’ It becomes normal,” Canada explained.
Thinking creatively
Although Canada attended one of the worst schools in the nation as a child, he said unfortunately not much has changed.
“If you go in those schools today, they start and end at the same time, and kids are taught the same way, even though we know that for 60 years, it hasn’t worked,” he said. “We must do different things.”
In an effort to lead change, Canada created a charter school in Harlem where there are after-school supports until 7 p.m. Saturday school also is available throughout the year for struggling kids. These efforts, he said, have yielded considerable progress in closing achievement gaps in math and reading.
“Why do we think we can teach the same way to everyone? What are the diverse ways we can save these young people? We can save some kids through academics, or athletics, or art, or mental health or physical health, or parents, grandparents or siblings,” he said.
For university educators, Canada believes they, too, need to continue figuring out what is working and what is not, especially for young people with little exposure to college.
“These are complicated times, but our mission cannot change, and we cannot sit on the sidelines,” said Canada. “We have to take a stand.”
