Whatever It Takes

I have been working on the summer issue of the SSA Newsletter and decided to take a short break to recommend an excellent book called Whatever It Takes by Paul Tough. A couple of posts back I wrote about social stratification and how I love the class I am taking on the topic and how it basically plagues my every thought. I have also spent a large chunk of the semester studying and researching for a paper in this class. My basic argument is that stratification begins during the initial stages of life (i.e., prenatal existence and early childhood). For the last day of class we were assigned to read Tough's book.

I LOVE this book and recommend it to anyone interested in the big picture of 'who gets what and why?' (as well as when, where, and how). I think Tough did an excellent job of combining these big picture ideas with a real-world application (Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone). If you are remotely interested in stratification, 'fairness', or even advocating for others in public policy, NGOs, etc. then this is a magnificent, inspiring, and hopeful read.

I got a job working for a youth development program with an NGO back home in Louisiana. Turns out that they are also in-charge of several other programs that benefit low socioeconomic families and their children such as the local Headstart. I think it would be a great idea for everyone on our staff to read this book and be especially familiar with the literature review in chapter 2.

Anyhow, below is a review, summary, and comments on the book. Check it out! It's awesome.

(The following comments, etc. came from the website-- http://www.paultough.com/ ).

What would it take?

That was the question that Geoffrey Canada found himself asking a decade ago. What would it take to change the lives of poor children — not one by one, through heroic interventions and occasional miracles, but in big numbers, and in a way that could be replicated nationwide? The question led him to create the Harlem Children's Zone, a 97-block laboratory in central Harlem where he is testing new and sometimes controversial ideas about poverty in America. His conclusion: if you want poor kids to be able to compete with their middle-class peers, you need to change everything in the lives — their schools, their neighborhoods, even the child-rearing practices of their parents.

Whatever It Takes contains what writer Alex Kotlowitz has called "the most cogent, provocative, and original thinking on urban poverty to come along in many, many years." It is an inspired portrait not only of Geoffrey Canada but also of the parents and children in Harlem who are struggling to better their lives, often against great odds. Carefully researched and deeply affecting, this is a dispatch from inside the most daring and potentially transformative social experiment of our time.

"The most compelling and potentially the most important book on the problem of poverty in urban America in years. Not to be missed." — Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food

"This book changed my understanding of poverty in America in the most surprising way: it made me feel hopeful." — Ira Glass, host of "This American Life"

"Outstanding literary nonfiction, distinguished by in-depth reporting, compelling writing and deep thinking.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"A remarkable book. ... A story more gripping and inspiring than you'd imagine social policy could possibly be." — Joel Lovell, GQ

"It’s the acute awareness of the overwhelmingly black staff, students and parents of just what they’re up against that makes this book absorbing and frequently touching." - Erin Aubry Kaplan, L.A. Times

Iisus Voskres! Istina Voskres!

Dare to Compete: The Struggle of Women in Sports

I cut this little snippet from a little article/paper on a couple documentaries on women in sports. It came from the website--http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/local/scisoc/sports/s05/papers/jscott.html (I want to give them credit for this because I didn't write it.) I do want to write my own thoughts about this documentary. However, I feel lazy right now. Anyhow, I really REALLY recommend watching it. The documentary is entitled "Dare to Compete: The Struggle of Women in Sports".

"The documentary 'Dare to Compete: The Struggle of Women in Sports' is an uplifting journey through the history of women in sports. A large portion of the film traces how the women-in-sports movement coincides with the greater women's rights movement that occurred in the 1960's and 1970's. It addresses gender, race, and sexual orientation. Martina Navratilova, an amazing tennis player, discusses her struggle with the media in particular. Instead of focusing on her exploits on the court, the press continually asked her about her sexuality and used their sports pages to speculate on this, rather than to laud her for her victories. Another incredible athlete, Babe, also represents the fascination of the media—and society in general—with female athletes and their stereotype that a women who is good in sports might be a lesbian. Babe excelled in whatever sport she took on. Her appearance was initially considered 'masculine' and thus the rumors started to fly; later, when she returns as a golf player, she has grown out her hair and eventually marries. Even in class, we speculated whether or not she married out of societal pressure and was really a lesbian; her talents were yet again pushed to the side.

The media also played a large role in setting women's sports backward when, in the first Olympics that women were allowed to run a longer distance, the runners were reported to have "fainted" and been very distressed. The myth that physical activity jeopardized a woman's ability to conceive persisted for years and represents society's struggle to accept women as athletic and feminine. Being a mother is really the ultimate in femininity, and is the very thing society thought athletics must interfere with.

Another interesting piece of 'Dare to Compete' is the progress of black women in sports. Black women were given the chance to compete in track and field before white women; they excelled in it too. These female athletes may have helped inspire other athletes to push themselves and defy society's expectations. Thanks to everything that women achieved--from Babe, to African-American women's track teams, to Billie Jean King's beating a male tennis player—the way was paved for my generation to participate in sports and continue to challenge ourselves on the athletic field and to challenge society's norms for women. There is still work to be done, but each story of women succeeding in sports is a victory for all women." [All written by Joanna Scott]