Geoffrey Canada, a renowned educator and advocate known for uplifting tens of thousands of at-risk students through Harlem Children’s Zone in New York, sees the post-pandemic era as the most challenging time for young people in America in the last five decades.
The traumatic and resounding impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be seen in state academic achievement data, classroom behavior and the discipline system — the kernels of a crisis waiting to happen, he said during keynote remarks at the ninth annual regional education forum presented by the San Antonio Report.
“Our children are in deep, deep trouble, and we need to do something extraordinary if we are going to save them,” he said. “Our children have gone through something just devastating, and what we know about trauma and toxic stress leads us to know that this is going to be a generational challenge for us to deal with.”
The educator, known for his appearance in the “Waiting for Superman” documentary, sees a glint of hope ahead, but the path there will not be easy. Just this week, an analysis by the think tank Texas 2036 found that more than half of students are below grade level in math statewide, even though only one in 10 parents believe their child is performing below grade level in math.
In a separate assessment, the national report card, also known as the NAEP, found a 21-point decline in the percentage of Texas eighth-grade students at or above basic math since 2011.
Without decisive and systematic action, Canada envisions a future marred by a hobbled workforce, overflowing jails and a mental health crisis. “And they will say, those are the COVID kids,” he said.
That is, unless something is done to reverse course.
“Here in San Antonio, you have an opportunity to make history — and I really mean that,” he said. “There’s never been a city in this country that has made a decision that we’re going to save our children at the…
