Whatever It Takes is an account of "Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America." Canada is the founder of the Harlem Children's Zone, which is a linked collection of social services aimed at lifting the children of Harlem out of poverty by transforming the neighborhood. The group runs two schools (kindergarten and middle school), parenting classes, afterschool programs, and more.
I read a very positive review of this book when it was published in 2008, and kept an eye out for it ever since. I finally came across a copy at Powell's Books.
The author does an excellent job of balancing high-level discussions of pedagogy with specific incidents to illustrate the challenges. The second chapter nicely summarizes the history of anti-poverty programs and the changing assumptions that underlie them. The scenes in the classrooms feel real and not cleaned up in the interest of making a point.
The book is honest about Canada's mixed results and the difficulty of accessing success. I felt a little uncomfortable about how the parenting classes promoted American middle-class practices as the "right" ones, but the author ultimately addresses this discomfort. Overall, the book is thought-provoking and doesn't claim to have all of the answers to the issues it raises.
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