Paraphrased by Tom Crumrine from the book of same name and from the most recent episode of This American Life
Geoffrey Canada had a son when he was in his teens and always thought he had been a good dad to him. It wasn’t until his forties when he had another son, this time while living in the suburbs rather than the inner city that he realized how much he had not done with the first one. Everyone in his neighborhood was so concerned with the brain development of their infants. They talked to them and read to them all the time and when they got older they received “time outs” for bad behavior rather than corporal punishment. At the time Canada was working with the young people of Harlem to help them with their educations. Not long after his realization he went to his board and told them that everything must change.
Canada realized that the biggest difference between middle and upper class children and poor children was what happened to them between the ages of 0-3. The result of his revelation eventually became Baby College. For nine Saturday mornings new parents come to ½ day meetings to learn how they can be better parents. They are not scolded and told what they are doing is wrong, they are shown the evidence and through experiential learning and conversation they are convinced that there is a better way. It goes without saying that this can be a touchy issue but the evidence for intervention like Baby College and the results from it are pretty clear.
Results:
- Reading level was greater than the NYC average
- Math level was greater than the NYC average
- 95% were on grade level
Pretty great progress and these are the students from year one of the program. The ones that were zero when the program began and who are 3rd graders now. Mr. Canada is hopeful that the students in subsequent years will do even better.
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