An inspiring if simplistic account of an African-American educator determined to make a difference in the lives of indifferent students. Hayre tells two stories here. The first—of her years as teacher, principal, administrator, college professor, and president of the Philadelphia Board of Education—is too sketchy to be of much value. But the unfolding story of the ``Tell Them We Are Rising'' program deserves a wide readership. At age 80, in June 1988, Hayre met with 116 Philadelphia sixth-graders and promised them that she would pay their college tuition if they graduated from high school. During the next six years, 22 became unwed mothers, 5 had run-ins with the criminal-justice system, and 16 dropped out. None of this is surprising, since, she notes, ``poverty, violence, and abuse informed the geography'' of a substantial percentage of the Risers, who live in ``the grip of a culture that ranks instant gratification above delayed rewards.'' What is impressive, though, is how the intervention of one remarkable person, along with mentors and parents, made a difference in the lives of so many. Khalil, for example, born heroin-addicted, abandoned by both parents, and left back in school twice, began getting As and Bs, and was accepted at Morehouse College. Hayre learns many valuable lessons from her Risers. They include the importance of finding alternative methods for educating at-risk youth; the value of establishing one-to-one relationships with caring, responsible adults; the necessity for parental involvement; and not least, the need for such inventive programs as ``Tell Them We Are Rising.'' (Coauthor Moore is on the editorial board of the Philadelphia Inquirer.) The author can be a little too harsh on teachers, as when she implies that they need to be held more accountable for the anger and indifference felt by so many black males. But here she offers a clear plan, hope, and a challenge to inner-city youth and their educators. (20 photos, not seen)
Pub Date: June 13, 1997
ISBN: 0-471-12679-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Wiley
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1997
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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