‘Dramatically different’ education methods urged

CEDAR RAPIDS - Geoffrey Canada has a message for parents: “No one's coming to save your kids.”

“The only people who are going to save your kids are you, and if you don't do it, your kids will not be saved,” he continued.

That blunt directive was one of many the educational advocate delivered during a speech at The Hotel at Kirkwood Center on Tuesday afternoon. In his almost hourlong engagement, Canada - who is the president and chief executive officer of Harlem Children's Zone, an education-based community initiative in the largely black Manhattan neighborhood - identified problems in America's education system.

“We've totally accepted failure as a norm in some communities,” said Canada, himself a product of a “lousy” school system in New York City's South Bronx. “A school is not like a bottle of wine ... Those schools (in the South Bronx) are lousy every year without fail.”

Canada's words touched on childhood obesity, the United States' comparatively high imprisonment rate and cuts in education funding, all functioning as calls to action for communities and parents to confront these issues. Canada referred to his work as that of “saving kids.”

“I have become convinced that if our nation doesn't do something dramatically different about the way we educate our kids, our very country is in peril,” he said.

Canada did not explicitly reference issues facing school districts in Eastern Iowa, but at least a few local students in attendance said the message hit home.

“When I fail, I feel like it's expected,” said 16-year-old Andrian Johnson, a soon-to-be junior at Cedar Rapids Washington High School. “When I'm expected to fail, my motivation is different. It's, ‘Oh yeah, I'm gonna show you differently.'”

Johnson and four other students attended the event as part of the African American Youth Think Tank, a project of the African American Family Preservation and Resource Committee. She attributed past teachers' presumptions about her academic abilities to race, a subject Canada also confronted.

“We look at these problems as if they're black and brown kids and so there's something wrong with those people,” he said as he highlighted statistics about low-achieving high-school graduates of various backgrounds. “This thing about black and brown kids is really about America.”

Canada's call for action morphed into an alert for accountability, a view he acknowledged wasn't popular.

“If a person is a teacher and they cannot teach, they should get a new job,” he said to scattered claps and shouts of support. “That's considered a controversial viewpoint ... If you get rid of all the people who fail your children, do you know who's left? Those who succeed.”

Canada appeared to extend that criticism to his own work, laying out a process of staff-involved evaluation that occurs when success eludes a Harlem Children's Zone learner, “to figure out what we did to allow this child to fail.”

“I think his ideas would be good for Washington (High School),” said 16-year-old Maurisa Clark, another attendee from the African American Youth Think Tank who will soon start her junior year at the high school.

Canada's visit was part of the Diversity Focus' SHIFT Speaker Series, and Executive Director Chad Simmons said he believes Canada's message is one of support.

“I wanted him to help reaffirm that it's us, the community, that will make a difference,” Simmons said. “If we're expecting failure from our children, that's unacceptable.”