Another family choosing Baltimore's Public Schools

I found this post at Baltimore Brew inspirational. I've known many families who have made the same choice that we have - to remain in City Schools while watching friends and neighbors flee. You just don't usually hear the reasons why they make this choice. I'm guessing that many parents share the feelings expressed in the article. It's very nice to see an articulately written piece expressing why a family with options would choose to go to City Schools.

A letter

Dear Governor O’Malley,

I am appalled at the sacrifices you are asking my children to make in the quality of their education, while not asking the children in richer counties to do the same. Considering the disparities that exist in the educational opportunities between Baltimore City and the richer counties, justice demands that the rich be asked to make greater sacrifices. Strangely you have chosen to increase funding in some counties. Weren’t you recently lauding the progress that has been made in the City Schools? Why, at the first glimmer of hope would you ask for such drastic and disproportionate cuts? My family has three children in three different schools in Baltimore and we are committed to being actively involved and supportive of all of these schools. This includes financial support, even though this can be hard to do in difficult financial times. We do this because we know that improving the quality of public education is a fundamental step in turning around the quality of life, long term in Baltimore City. I am asking you, and the State of Maryland to make the hard choices to similarly support our schools.

City Schools have been making progress because of everybody's hard word and because there has been more equitable (I won't say fair, but moving in that direction) funding for Baltimore's schools. These proposed budget cuts are frustrating and frightening to me - after spending the last ten years in the City Schools I finally have a sense of hope for the system as a whole. I'm inspired by what's being accomplished and I feel vindicated in the choices I've made for my kids. I fear that with the budget cuts that you are asking for, momentum will be lost and progress reversed.

Please, reconsider your budget proposal. I know there is a financial crisis that needs to be addressed, but we need a solution that does not take away the educational opportunities of the poorest kids in the state. It’s just not fair.

Sincerely,

You can submit you're own comments here

Stopping the budget axe

Given the bleak picture presented in this Baltimore Sun article and this letter from Dr. Alonso is there something we can do to change this budget decision? I won't argue that the state is in a desperate situation, but there's no way that it's fair to pass this on so harshly to the poorest school districts in the state! City Schools have been making progress because of everybody's hard work and because there has been more equitable (I won't say fair, but moving in that direction) funding for Baltimore's schools. I was just about to send off letters to every politician that I thought would listen, but I'll pause to see if anyone has suggestions for a more unified and organized response.

This is so frustrating and frightening to me - after spending the last ten years in the City Schools I finally have a sense of hope for the system as a whole. I'm inspired by what's being accomplished and I feel vindicated in the choices I've made for my kids. Now it seems like the rug is being pulled out from under our feet! Here's an idea for an economic stimulus - invest in our schools! We could put the money to use and there's no question about the long term pay-off. There are enough building repairs that need to be done to keep the whole state's construction industry occupied.

Sorry, I'm starting to rant, but I feel like this is an attack that is hitting too close to home and family.

Yet another website pointer

Got to love npr. This morning drive in to work there was a sponsorship plug for Edutopia. This seems to be more of a website for teachers than for parents, but it's talking about exactly what's being discussed right now over at InsideEd. There's a post about why blocking internet access for highschool students is a bad idea here. A post about keeping kids from dropping out here. A whole section about bringing technology into schools here. Fascinating reading even for those of us who aren't teachers - it's like kismet or something.

Walking a Fine Line

Sometimes decisions in life feel like walking a tightrope. I unconditionally love my children on one side; I want my children to do better and achieve more on the other. I defend my choice of sending my kids to Baltimore City Public Schools as a place where they are getting a good education; I look at poor decisions that are being made in these schools and want there to be big changes. I see the unique talents and qualities in my autistic child; I want him learn ways to fit into society to be a functional, contributing member. I could go on about work and marriage, but I think you get the point. Walk along the tightrope, focusing on the path and the goal and trying to keep from falling into the abyss.

The problem with the middle? Sometimes I feel like I've just found a way for everybody to be able to find fault with me. "You mean you're not a warrior mother sacrificing all your money, time and energy to focus solely on rescuing your autistic child from the tragedy of autism? For shame, you don't really love him." But at the same time, "You advocate for your autistic child and work with others to change his behaviors to get him to be more acceptable to neurotypicals? For shame, you don't love him as he is." To which I say, how about a little less judgment and a little more compassion, for both me and my child? Being human, we all just muddle along and do the best we can. In the vast scheme of things we're pretty small and our mistakes and triumphs are small as well. Viewed from a distance, we all seem pretty similar. Maybe we could see the similarities instead of pushing people apart.

Oh no, this is sounding like a dreaded whiny post so quickly I'll write something that's made me feel really positive lately. I am now sure that people working with my autistic child really do pay attention to how he's doing pretty much all the time and are emotionally connected to him. That, along with some incredible progress, makes me think he's where he needs to be, walking a tightrope himself, between being challenged and feeling comfortable. When I ask him about how he feels about his new school, I think he agrees.

Change.org

Recently, one of my favorite aut-parent blogs has moved to change.org. There are a fair number of causes that have discussions going on there. Two that are the most related to this blog are public education and autism. Change.org is a "social action network" with some interesting discussions (not that I totally agree with everything that's being said) and the opportunity for something to actually come out of these discussions. This is a generally progressive site and there also seems to be some sort of connection with the Obama administration, if only as a conduit for ideas.

Here's some of their text from their about us page:

"Today as citizens of the world, we face a daunting array of social and environmental problems ranging from health care and education to global warming and economic inequality. For each of these issues, whether local or global in scope, there are millions of people who care passionately about working for change but lack the information and opportunities necessary to translate their interest into effective action.

Change.org aims to address this need by serving as the central platform informing and empowering movements for social change around the most important issues of our time. "

I think it's worth checking out.

So where ya been?

Long time, no post... sorry. I could make many excuses and give personal details of what I've been doing, but instead I'll give you a picture of one project. At the Special One's new school it has been a big transition for all concerned. I was touched when an especially kind classmate was worried that the other kids were laughing at my kid - specifically his hat. It was explained that "Well, it is a pretty silly hat so it's OK for the other kids to laugh at it." That led to a few minutes of thought followed by a question from Kind-Kid - "Where'd he get the hat?" In response - "His mother made it." After a second, shorter pause..."Would she make me one too?"

That lead to the project of knitting 25 hats, each unique and all silly. This picture shows a part of the class in the hats on the last day before winter break. That's one excuse for not posting for the last month or so.

I'll try to be better in 2009, but no promises.

Mustaches

As I've said before, I like DonorsChoose.org. Unfortunately my attempt at directing readers to a group of BCPSS projects that I selected was a total failure. I'm thinking the issue was that I just didn't have a catchy-enough concept going. Plus, this blog is anonymous, and who wants to sign on with someone that they can't see? So my idea is to link you to someone with a catchy theme and pictures and some deserving projects. The theme is Mustaches 4 Kids - Baltimore and the dude with pictures is Nick "Oates (not Hall)" Greer and his projects are here. If this guy is willing to embarrass himself with a rather, how shall I say... sketchy... mustache, I think it's the least we can do to pitch in towards the projects that he's selected.

Some Justice

I posted this spring about a teacher in St. Lucie County Florida who had her class of kindergarteners vote on whether a 5 y.o. presumably autistic child should be allowed to stay in their class after he stood and listened to why they didn't like him.

It turns out that the school board has suspended the teacher without pay for a year as detailed in this story. I found it kind of encouraging until the end where the mom was saying she felt she had to homeschool her son because of how bad he feels about the incident.

I guess there is some level of justice to be found here, but the root cause of the problem is that a teacher with so little understanding and training about special needs kids was allowed to teach this class. I would feel better if the story had included a statement about how the district was going to prevent this from ever happening again. As it is, I just worry more about my special one and what's lies in his/her future.

Things that wear me out

1. Teenagers, adolescents and the hormonal/emotional roller coaster that they are on
2. Bureaucracies that eat up records requiring me to check that everything has made it to everyone who is supposed to have this information
3. Important enrichment activities outside of the school day that require modifying my work schedule, split second timing to avoid being late and too much time in my car
4. High stakes tests/classes that will have big impacts on my kids futures that I have to just sit back and watch
5. The alternation of "things are going very well" with "there are big problems here" with little or no warning of the change coming up
6. Staying up late to watch election results
7. The seemingly endless list of things that I, as an involved parent, should contribute time/money/energy to that I actually do care about and can't blow off, even if it kills me
8. Waking up before the alarm goes off because I'm thinking about all this
9. Almost forgot my favorite...washing machines that forget they're supposed to turn off if unbalanced, walk across the hall, smash into a wall and then fry their little brains, thereby forcing me to sit in a laundromat because the repair-person can't come for 4 days and then has to order a part that will take 3 more days which the stinking diagnostic code said he'd need to get, but he couldn't decide to do that until he had actually come out to see the machine...lovely.

That being said, I am beat. I know wishing away your life is a bad idea, but the Thanksgiving break can't come soon enough.

That sounded a lot like whining. Something positive? The special one is making eye contact, socializing more and disrupting the class less. That makes me smile even if I am half asleep :-)