School Reform: Is There Common Ground?

Geoffrey Canada, a passionate advocate for education reform, has been selected for the 2015 Distinguished Lecture Series of Lehigh University’s College of Education. Canada, a nationally recognized figure for his pioneering work in helping children and families in Harlem, will address “The Promise of Charter Schools” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015, in Baker Hall in the Zoellner Arts Center.

Canada is prominently featured in the 2010 documentary Waiting for ’Superman,’ which explores the state of public education and reform efforts.

For 25 years, Canada was president of Harlem Children’s Zone, which The New York Times Magazine called “one of the most ambitious social experiments of our time.” In 1997, the agency launched the Harlem Children’s Zone Project, which provides educational, social and medical services to children in a targeted area of central Harlem. Drawing upon his own childhood experiences and those at the Zone, Canada wrote Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America and Reaching Up for Manhood: Transforming the Lives of Boys in America.

Tickets are on sale at the Zoellner Box Office. For more information, visit lehigh.edu/canada