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Whatever It Takes

Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America

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Whatever It Takes

Written by: Paul Tough
Narrated by: Ax Norman
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About this listen

What would it take? That was the question that Geoffrey Canada found himself asking. What would it take to change the lives of poor children, not one by one, through heroic interventions and occasional miracles, but in big numbers, and in a way that could be replicated nationwide?

The question led him to create the Harlem Children's Zone, a 97-block laboratory in central Harlem where he is testing new and sometimes controversial ideas about poverty in America. His conclusion: if you want poor kids to be able to compete with their middle-class peers, you need to change everything in their livestheir schools, their neighborhoods, even the child-rearing practices of their parents.

Whatever It Takes is a tour de force of reporting, an inspired portrait not only of Geoffrey Canada but of the parents and children in Harlem who are struggling to better their lives, often against great odds. Carefully researched and deeply affecting, this is a dispatch from inside the most daring and potentially transformative social experiment of our time.

©2009 Paul Tough (P)2010 Audible, Inc. Social Sciences
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Profile Image for Meaghan

Great book

I guess I’m a little late to this party, as the book is now a few years old. Geoffrey Canada and his team are inspiring and Paul Tough weaves everything into a very interesting story. Considering what we’ve recently learned about trauma, I’m very interested to know whether the Harlem Children’s Zone has become ‘trauma informed.’ Would love to read a follow up book that discusses that as well as the results that have been achieved over the years.

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