Terri Gross, in the interview, pointed out that Canada, over the course of his work in Harlem of about 30 years, had drastically changed his strategy.
He explained that over a dozen years ago, he felt his intensive program of working with a smaller number of children was failing. He said to solve the problem, he expanded his program to include 8,000 children in Harlem.
Terri again pointed out that it was unusual to fail and then expand instead of fail and shrink.
Canada explained that the small number of students he was helping at first, were not succeeding because when they went home from school they had to face the gang culture which beat them up physically for thinking they could better themselves.
Canada said he needed to expand his program to include whole neighborhoods and change the very culture, so students could go home from school and feel safe.
Canada made a very important point of how essential it is for him to actually change the culture in the neighborhoods so that his school programs will succeed.
Needless to say, this discussion, in light of our class, was fascinating.
His school programs begin with the parents, and then follow this students all the way up until they have graduated from college. In his Harlem schools, there are clinics, social workers, medical staff, and psychiatrists. Every need of the students is supported at school.
Canada, and Tough, feel this expanded program is successful. Obama wants to replicate the program in other cities.
A side note: Canada thinks that teaching to the test to pass No Child Left Behind mandates is what needs to be done. He wishes more teachers would teach to the test. He doesn't care if the test is culturally different from where the students are coming from (culturally). He says they must learn that culture anyway to succeed in college, so teach to the test and learn early how to succeed in college. The goal is a complete education with a college degree and a job that will elevate the children out of the gang neighborhoods where they have come from.
A FEW COMMENTS ON BOURDIEU:
p. 93. Bourdieu labels symbolic labor as well as symbolic power and symbolic capital. "Indeed, Bourdieu's sociological project is a study of the political economy of the various forms of symbolic capital. He focuses much of his work on the symbolic producers who specialize in creating symbolic power... he also thinks of his sociology as an instrument of struggle against the various forms of symbolic violence." (p. 94).
Perhaps the most interesting example I have personally witnessed was with a friend of mine in college, Loki Lincoln. Loki was from an obscure tribe in Southern Sudan. His father was the chief of the tribe with many wives. However, Loki was the firstborn son in his group of about 40 siblings. After Sudan became independent many years before, missionaries stayed on to promote education and health care. There were still missionaries in the area years later when Loki was born and growing up.
A group of nuns in Loki's area requested that Loki attend school. Loki would become the first to learn to read in his tribe, or what his father called, "The White Man's Secret." This was no small event for this tribe, and certainly the chief. As a matter of fact, Loki's dad did not readily give his consent to the nuns to teach his son the White Man's Secret.
His dad thought long and hard about what would happen if Loki learned to read. It would change the tribe forever. Their tradition was oral passed on through tribal elders and not read in books. Their language had never been written down. The chief feared a Pandora's Box if Loki went to school.
In the end Loki attended the school of the nuns. He learned about the outside world. Eventually, he won a scholarship (also secured through the nuns) to go to college in the United States. The first born son was not taking over as the chief. He was getting an education to go back to Sudan (perhaps) and take his place in the greater society of Sudan.
This is what Loki's dad was afraid of. He regretted his decision but it was too late.
No comments:
Post a Comment