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HCZ President and Founder Geoffrey Canada Gives TED Talk on Saving Failing Schools

Schools are failing our nation’s kids. In his April 2013  TED Talk, Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) President and CEO Geoffrey Canada shared how we can save them.

In an impassioned speech featured as part of the infuential talk series’ first-ever original television special, Mr. Canada discussed HCZ’s innovative approach to teaching children and how to leverage those lessons to save the nation’s failing education system.

Mr. Canada shared that in 2012, 100 percent of HCZ’s seniors graduated from high school and were accepted to college.

“Those of us in education have held onto a business plan that we don’t care how many millions of young people fail,” said Mr. Canada, who was featured along with fellow education luminaries Bill Gates and Sir Ken Robinson. “We’re going to continue to do the same thing that didn’t work. Here’s a business plan that doesn’t make any sense.”

Mr. Canada urged educators to embrace innovation as a way to strengthen our education system — and the outcomes for our nation’s children.

“This innovation issue — the idea that weve got to keep innovating until we get this science down — is absolutely critical,” he said. “America cannot wait another 50 years to get this right. There is an educational cliff we are walking over right this very second.”