Bad Press

Admittedly, I am not particularly good at keeping up with the news and I definitely had to Google "Baltimore City Schools news" to find something to write about in this post. What can I say? Watching the news just depresses me most nights. I don't really need to see video coverage of the tragedies my students tell me about so nonchalantly.

Anyway, one of the top hits was all about former Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele's recent comments about how Frederick Douglass High is teaching its students next to nothing. I had heard a lot about this school. There was that documentary on HBO a little while ago and a current member of our staff used to teach there. He told of fires, weapons, droves of students roaming the halls anonymously, burnt out teachers who cut their own classes... It seemed outrageous but he assured us it was all true. And from what I had seen and heard about Baltimore schools, I had to believe him. I mean, have you seen season four of "The Wire"? This place is crazy!

With all this bad press, it's no wonder no one wants to come teach in Baltimore.

Last spring some of my colleagues and I dropped by Douglass for a visit with that staff member I mentioned. He prepped us for the madness we were about to see but I think we were all shocked by the almost eerily quiet hallways. Students were in classes and it looked like they were learning something. Is this the Frederick Douglass Steele saw? My co-worker was amazed at the difference, almost embarrassed that his horror stories suddenly seemed completely fictional.

In the article, I read that Douglass has been making tremendous improvements in the last two years and it looks like people are starting to notice. I guess HBO hasn't had the chance to come back and do a follow-up documentary on the successes the school has had.

I can't help but wonder if a little positive propoganda couldn't turn educators on to the charm of Charm City schools...