{"id":1676,"date":"2015-10-16T08:48:38","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T13:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/?p=1676"},"modified":"2015-10-16T08:50:08","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T13:50:08","slug":"we-cant-wait-for-superman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/we-cant-wait-for-superman\/","title":{"rendered":"We Can’t Wait for Superman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Print this entry<\/a><\/p>

Dr. Geoffrey Canada told this story the other morning in Longview, to a crowd gathered in the Belcher Center on the LeTourneau University campus for the Poverty Conference, sponsored by the Junior League. An acclaimed documentary called \u201cWaiting for Superman\u201d was produced a few years back, in part featuring his work creating the Harlem Children\u2019s Zone. Canada was raised in the South Bronx of New York City, a tough neighborhood. His work with his team cleaning up and taking back 97 blocks of Harlem and serving thousands of kids over the past 30 years is the crux of his story.<\/p>\n

Canada said when he was young, maybe fourth grade, he loved reading Superman comic books. It provided a respite from the violence, poverty and danger of the South Bronx. But one day, his mother told him Superman was not real. He was crushed, not in the way children react when told Santa Claus is also a fiction. Canada was crushed because if there was no Superman, then there was no one who could come in and save him from the depths of the ghetto. \u201cThere was no one coming with the power to save us.\u201d<\/p>\n

A\u00a0tall, thin man who is now 63, Canada paced the stage restlessly with long strides, his hands accompanying the torrent of words spoken eloquently and without notes. His passion is contagious, his humor infectious. Normally he does not make overnight trips so that he can be with his family by nightfall. He made a rare exception for the Poverty Conference. As he traveled from his hotel to the Belcher Thursday morning, he noticed what those of us who work on the south side of Longview see every day: homes with bars on the windows, unkempt vacant lots littered with trash, a child waiting for the bus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat little boy headed to school this morning looked a little scared, a little lost. That was me,\u201d he said. The problems we face in Longview are no different than anywhere else, he said. \u201cI have yet to be anywhere there isn\u2019t a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Harlem, after receiving a doctorate from Harvard, Canada put together a team, raised money and set out to rebuild a borough sagging from years of neglect, decay and violence \u2014 block by block. It was not easy, but 15 years later they had transformed Harlem. \u201cIt is now a place people are dying to get to, not get out.\u201d<\/p>\n

They knocked on doors and asked skeptical residents, \u201cWe want to organize this block and clean it up. Will you help us?\u201d And slowly, they did.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think when you go in to help people, they are going to love you. They are not!\u201d Canada said to widespread laughter. \u201cThey are suspicious.\u201d<\/p>\n

The situation in Harlem, in Longview and in cities large and small has become more dangerous than when Harlem was young. Then, disputes were solved with fisticuffs, not Glocks. When fights occurred when he was a kid, \u201cthey weren\u2019t lethal. Now they go home, get a gun and shoot the other kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Harlem, where his work started in 1983, by 1989 he had lost 11 kids to violence. But today, nearly 1,000 students from Harlem are in college. Graffiti is gone. Nearly 14,000 youth are served by the Harlem Children\u2019s Zone, as well as their parents. Canada retired last year, but the work continues, and he has more time to spread his message: \u201cEducation is the only way to break the cycle of poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n

To widespread applause he said something considered controversial by some. \u201cIf you\u2019re a teacher, and you cannot teach, you probably should get another job.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you went to a hairdresser who butchered your hair, would you go back? he asked. Of course not. But too many school districts retain teachers who are inept. In the South Bronx, for example, Canada said nothing has really changed since he was a child in the early 1960s.<\/p>\n

\u201cMillions of children have been ruined there,\u201d he said angrily.<\/p>\n

The costs are so high it boggles the mind. The price tag to keep someone in jail in New York City is $167,000 a year. The Harlem Children\u2019s Zone spends $5,000 per child in its program. The national cost for incarceration is much lower, about $42,000, but still many times more than what is spent per child on education. The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. We spend an incredible amount of money putting people behind bars.<\/p>\n

So who is going to \u201cfix\u201d this problem? Canada said he has talked with presidents, secretaries of education and other high-ranking officials for decades. The bad news: \u201cThere is no plan. We have to do it ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

His final charge to the audience of about 500 was this.<\/p>\n