Geoffrey Canada
Geoffrey Canada
Geoffrey Canadais an American educator, social activist and author. Since 1990, Canada has been president of the Harlem Children's Zone in Harlem, New York, an organization that states its goal is to increase high school and college graduation rates among students in Harlem. Canada serves as the chairman of Children's Defense Fund's board of directors. He was a member of the board of directors of The After-School Corporation, a nonprofit organization that aims to expand educational opportunities for all students...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth13 January 1952
CityBronx, NY
CountryUnited States of America
The rates of soda consumption in our poorest communities cannot be explained by individual consumer preferences alone, but rather are linked to broader issues of access and affordability of healthy foods in low-income neighborhoods, and to the marketing efforts of soda companies themselves.
I graduated from Bowdoin College and went to the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Then I left and took a job teaching really poor inner-city white kids in Boston. It was interesting to me because I'd never been around poor whites before.
An extended school day gives administrators the ability to ensure children get a well-rounded education.
Why is it that when we had rotary phones, when we were having folks being crippled by polio, that we were teaching the same way then that we're doing right now?
Build an organization that can tackle the tough things and keep moving.
Many schools today are sacrificing social studies, the arts and physical education so children can cover basic subjects like math, English and science.
Education is the only billion dollar industry that tolerates abject failure.
One of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me Superman did not exist. I was a comic book reader. I read comic books and I just loved them because even in the depths of the ghetto, you just thought, 'he’s coming. I just don’t know when because he always shows up and saves all the good people.’ I was maybe in the fourth grade, fifth grade; I was like ‘Mom you think Superman’s coming?’ and she said ‘Superman is not real.’ She thought I was crying because it’s like Santa Claus is not real. I was crying because there was no one coming with enough power to save us.
Boys want to grow up to be like their male role models. And boys who grow up in homes with absent fathers search the hardest to figure out what it means to be male.
Osama Bin Laden is not going to come here and destroy America. Our education system is doing that just fine.
It's easy to have faith when everything is going great. The real test of faith is when you're facing something that only your faith in God will get you through.
You have to be prepared to think outside the box...Stand back and think about what we could do creativity. We've got to do that to push the field forward.
Over the past five years, I've met several presidents, several secretaries of education ... and there is no plan. If you want to save your children, you're going to have to do it yourself. It's just us.
Let's stop teaching to the middle and start teaching to the student.