Waiting for a Miracle: Schools Are Not the Problem

There are no quick fixes in education--nobody knows that better than child psychiatrist and school reformer James P. Comer. The director of the Yale University Child Study Center has seen his School Development Program achieve varying rates of success and failure at more than 650 schools. In his sixth book, Waiting for a Miracle, Comer ties education issues into a larger social cause: today's youth, particularly urban, disenfranchised, African American children. Only through a national focus on supporting black youth, linking them to community organizations and providing jobs, Comer argues, can society hope to erase the "designated loser label" that plagues future generations. It's an idea that could take 20 to 30 years to reap positive results, he warns. Comer isn't trying to reinvent the wheel; much of what he preaches is already in effect, to a lesser degree, in some cities (the book offers nine such programs as prototypes).

An engaging writer who uses wry humor and heartwarming anecdotes, Comer attacks a number of myths about black culture, drawing from his own life growing up black and poor in East Chicago, Indiana. He credits much of his success to his two hard-working, humble parents, and thoughtfully dissects his own experiences while avoiding playing the race card. He talks frankly about race relations in a way that reaches out to other cultures. In doing so he offers a voice of hope in this quick, enjoyable read--a must for community activists, politicians, educators, and anyone who cares about the future of our schools and the children in them. --Jodi Mailander Farrell