Lori, who's always thinking about me, brought me a copy of Newsweek from February 2009. There were a few articles in there that were relevant for my own work, and Lori thought I'd want to see them. She was right. Thanks, Lori. :-)
I found myself with a little more time to read than I expected, and so I ended up reading an interview with Geoffrey Canada, who is the president and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone. He had some inspiring things to say. There were two things, in particular, that I would like to share with You. The first made me stop and think. The second made me a little teary-eyed.
You can read lots more about Geoffrey and the Harlem Children's Zone on this New York Times article from 2004.
Q. What do You look for when You hire people?
The person who says, "You know, I tried, I was young, I just wasn't smart enough to pull it off, but I knew I could do it; if I had just spent enough time to get the right technique I know it would've worked." That's the person that You feel like is still in search of the answer, who You want on your team.
Q. Can You recall the single most satisfying day in teh years Youv'e worked with the Harle Children's Zone?
One day... George Khaldun were walking to lunch. We were... in a kind of beat-up area. We're in suits and ties and we see these other two African-American men in suits and ties, which is very unusual over there. And so we're just walking and talking, and George says, "Geoff, those are our kids." They were two of our college kids who were heading to their jobs down in midtown. George looked at me and he said, "You know, this is what we dreamed about." And we just watched those two kids heading towards a good life and thought, what's what this is about. We've leveled the playing field.
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