An old solution to an old problem
While working a routine weekend shift on Saturday, I had the opportunity to write an obituary (published today) for Lloyd McDonald, who worked as a teacher and administrator in the city schools for 30 years before his retirement in 1975.
In 1965, while head of the guidance department at Harlem Park Junior High School, Mr. McDonald founded a nationally recognized anti-poverty program called the Neighborhood School for Parents. The program held evening classes for parents so they could earn their high school diplomas. It also educated them in nutrition and provided balanced meals for the whole family. Daycare was offered for young children, and additional classes for older children while the parents were in school.
Learning about the program from Joel Carrington, a retired assistant superintendent in BCPSS who was friends with McDonald for 64 years, I was reminded of more recent initiatives. Over the past few weeks, I've written about an extensive effort in the city schools to get dropouts to earn their diplomas, helping them to arrange childcare or overcome any other barriers standing in the way of their getting an education. I've also written about the ambitious new food service director who's trying to get students eating healthier meals.
This may be an overly simplistic way of looking at things, but if the same challenges have been confronting Baltimore's schools for more than 40 years and if we once had an effective way of dealing with them, it seems a shame that we need to keep reinventing the wheel.
In any event, I enjoyed learning about Mr. McDonald from his old friend.
Baltimoresun.com's 
Comments
That second to last paragraph is very telling. It may be oversimplified and many things obviously did NOT work in BCPSS for a long time, but the thrust of education policy and the attendant policy-makers is constantly about a "scorched earth" policy where everything is always gutted with a new administration. Re-inventing the wheel is how policy-makers justify their actions.
Two analogies....The Bush administration's decision not to include any people with Baathist ties to the new government in Iraq proved destructive.
And...for the sports fans, the Detroit Lions. Enough said.
The ego and hubris attached to many policy-makers ideas and the constant re-orientation is part of the problem. No consistency in anything leads to constant under-achievement and under-performance.
Posted by: David Ortiz | October 14, 2008 11:58 AM
BCPSS is notorious for giving up on initiatives before they have enough time to assess, and possibly, tweak them. We latch onto the latest "thing" and throw out programs that are sound, or could become sound. It's a revolving door of initiative after initiative. Part of the problem has been the parade of CEOs over the past 12-13 years. It has been especially detrimental when we've had CEOs who have been quick to get rid of programs without fully understanding them (scorched earth is a great analogy, David!). New isn't always better. Sometimes the "old ways" have great merit.
Posted by: Avalon | October 15, 2008 9:35 AM