What if I told you that as a city we could reduce the incidents of sexual child abuse by 48%? Consider the fact that last year, the Baltimore Child Abuse Center interviewed 793 children about allegations of sexual child abuse; now consider national estimates that only one in 10 children report the abuse. Baltimore City […]
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Let’s stop rewarding truant students with more time off from school
Monday, September 22, 2008It’s good news that communities and schools are starting to pay serious attention to the problem of student absence and truancy. After all, teachers can’t teach children who simply aren’t there. Students who miss a lot of school are very likely to fail, drop out and struggle throughout their lives. Some of the renewed emphasis […]
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On the responsibilities of universities
Monday, September 15, 2008Baltimore City public schools are underperforming. The Baltimore City Data Collaborative showed that between 2006-2007, just over 44% of 8th graders were proficient in state reading assessments, and just 24.4% were proficient in math. We know that while high-school graduation rates have improved from over six years ago, still nearly 9.6% of our 9th-12th graders […]
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Have you had your arts today?
Monday, July 07, 2008High-performing schools have strong arts programs. Low-performing schools do not. This fact remains true regardless of the demographics. In fact, in challenging circumstances schools show the greatest improvement when the arts are strong. My audacious idea: at the end of each school day, each Baltimore City Public School student can answer “Yes!” to the question: […]
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Protect our children
Monday, June 16, 2008My audacious idea is that we all commit to protecting and nurturing our children. Protecting our children requires responsible parenting. It is unacceptable that any child lives in a home where he or she is not wanted and cared for. It is up to us as a community to show all children that they have […]
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Rethinking the school day
Monday, May 19, 2008Baltimore is a playful, vibrant place. You need go no further than the parking lot of M&T Bank Stadium to watch adults chasing each other around, football in hand, before and after a Ravens game. If you stroll through Federal Hill, Patterson Park or Canton on any given evening, you will almost certainly run into […]
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Everyday heroes
Monday, May 05, 2008Note: In honor of National Foster Care Month this May, Shantel Randolph, this week’s blogger and 2007 Baltimore Community Fellow, is organizing a picnic for more than 200 foster care youth in the Baltimore area. To read more about her May 10 event, click here. Youth in the foster care system live in a world […]
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What do Baltimore’s children & youth need to succeed? Let’s ask them
Monday, April 28, 2008I have practiced civil rights law for twelve years and have had the pleasure of traveling to cities across this country to work with youth, particularly African-American and Latino youth, who wanted to improve services provided by public schools and juvenile justice systems. When I think about some of the youth I have met, I […]
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Joy: a radical solution for schools
Monday, April 21, 2008Ask any creator…an architect, sculptor, writer, carpenter, choreographer, composer or designer. Sometimes you just have to stop and start all over again. They say it is ‘insanity’ to continue doing the same things and yet keep expecting different results. Sometimes you have to detach, throw out and then re-create. This is the formula I suggest […]
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Community martial arts schools
Monday, April 07, 2008About fifteen years ago, I spent a few evenings in Mack Lewis’s boxing gym, working on a story for Baltimore Magazine. Vince Pettway was the gym’s star then, training for a super-welterweight title fight, and in those days he was something to watch. But what impressed me just as much were the other young men, […]
