"One of the things that sells music is when the artist is looked at as someone who's come up from the streets. Not just any streets, but the toughest, meanest streets of the urban ghetto. And that's called 'street credibility.'"

Art

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Thematic Reflection

This quotation examines the core nature of Art as articulated by Geoffrey Canada. Within historical and literary traditions, reflections on Art provide actionable mental models, challenging individuals to evaluate personal ethics, self-discipline, and daily actions.

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About Geoffrey Canada

Geoffrey Canada is an American educator, social activist and author. Since 1990, Canada has been president of the Harlem Children's Zone in Harlem, New York, an organization that states its goal is to increase high school and college graduation rates among students in Harlem. This initiative serves a 97-block area of Harlem replete with at-risk children. Canada serves as the chairman of Children's Defense Fund's board of directors. He was a member of the board of directors of The After-School Corporation, a nonprofit organization that aims to expand educational opportunities for all students. Canada's recommendation for educational reform is to start early using wide-ranging strategies and never give up.

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More by Geoffrey Canada

"An extended school day gives administrators the ability to ensure children get a well-rounded education."

— Geoffrey Canada
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"I graduated from Bowdoin College and went to the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Then I left and took a job teaching really poor inner-city white kids in Boston. It was interesting to me because I'd never been around poor whites before."

— Geoffrey Canada
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"At a school in Massachusetts where I once worked, we managed early on through consensus. Which sounds wonderful, but it was just a very, very difficult way to sort of manage anything, because convincing everybody to do one particular thing, especially if it was hard, was almost impossible."

— Geoffrey Canada
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"Good dental care doesn't make you a good student, but if your tooth hurts, it's hard to be a good student."

— Geoffrey Canada
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More about Art

"I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality."

— Frida Kahlo
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"I preferred MTV as it used to be when it was about the music - I don't like it that now they just have reality shows. Reality TV rots people's brains."

— Georgia May Jagger
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"I've always been fascinated with knowing the self. This fascination led me to submerge myself in art, study neuroscience, and later to become a psychotherapist."

— Ariel Garten
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"For my 23rd birthday, I received a nylon string guitar. I told myself that if I could play Eric Clapton's 'Tears In Heaven,' then I could play the guitar. I practised every chance I got, driving my housemates insane, until several weeks later I had a shaky version of the song down. I wrote my first song on the guitar a few weeks after that."

— Neil Jackson
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