Did anyone hear 'This American Life' last Sunday?

I love this program!

Harlem Children's Zone

The organization has been around since the 70s, and the current was program started in Harlem by a man named Geoffrey Canada who was social worker in the area for decades. He got tired of the cycle. This constant influx of children coming into his program - he worked with teens, helping increase high school graduation rates - and the whole time he could help one at a time, start with one kid and go from there. We all know what that feels like. You form this amazing relationship; you bond with these kids; you teach them, help them, learn from them; and then they move on. And another child comes in... someone is so eerily similar to so many you've seen before. So the way the NPR interview took it, Canada was sick of this and thought

'What is the tipping point?'

How many children in this neighborhood, how many people, will we have to affect and change before reading, school, healthy activities, a healthy family becomes the norm. And so he went big. Forget one at a time. Let's help thousands. No. Let's help tens of thousands.

The program that I love so much is all about schooling. There is a 'Baby college' that parents can enter with their newborns to learn the basics of parenting. Things like bathing them regularly, feeding them the right things, that time outs are better than corporal punishment, kids need to hear language from day one, that even babies should be read to daily. These are things that middle class families know. They know them either because their parents did these things, or they see a show about doing these things, they read books or magazines about these things. But this culture is lost to families who are surrounded by poverty. Then from there, HCZ has opened charter schools that run all the way through high school. The statistics are amazing. Over 95% of the first group, of 3rd graders, tested at or above grade level, and a huge majority tested above average on state tests.

Apparently it is relatively well-known, although the first time I heard of it was the other day on the podcast. I guess I should have listened more to Obama's campaign promises.

That's right, for everyone who just took time to read the web site and fall in love with it as much as I did, Obama noted this program in early campaign speeches and promised to expand and fund it in 20 major cities around the country. I haven't been able to find exact info on when, how, where but apparently there is a bill heading to Congress this fall.
Here's some info to start - Obameter at Politifact.com


I think I just may work for one of these programs one day.