When Midshipman Charlie Wright started tutoring grade-school pupils last year, he considered it an extension of his service to his country.

He later discovered he had gained an important virtue - patience.

"When you're mentoring and teaching the plebes, it's a little more instantaneous," said Wright, a first-classman (senior) at the Naval Academy.

"You say, 'This is where you're deficient,' and they fix it like that," he said, snapping his fingers. "Trying to instruct kids is a little different."

Wright and several other midshipmen - who all have become adept at coaxing responses out of reluctant schoolchildren - were at Germantown Elementary School in Annapolis yesterday to celebrate a partnership between the academy and Anne Arundel public schools.

School officials plan to expand the Mids for Kids program, which was begun by the academy more than a decade ago and matches midshipmen with pupils at poorly performing elementary schools. It has about 100 volunteers who tutor once a week at five elementary schools in the county.

The school system will begin coordinating the program and providing some transportation for the midshipmen, most of whom do not own cars. The program has been loosely organized and sometimes has scheduling and transportation problems.

For schools Superintendent Eric J. Smith, taking over Mids for Kids was a logical way to assist Annapolis schools, the first cluster in the county he has targeted for improvement.

"Right now, the focus is on elementary schools," Smith said. "We may move up to middle and high schools somewhere down the line."

Vice Adm. Richard J. Naughton, the Naval Academy superintendent, said the program benefits the midshipmen as much as the children, by teaching them to give back to others.

"We're part of this community," Naughton said. "We want that bond to be stronger every day."

Maryland schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick and U.S. Education Undersecretary Gene Hickok also attended the brief ceremony at Germantown Elementary.

Principal Bonnie Schmeltz said the midshipmen have changed the atmosphere of the school, which previously had nearly 2,000 suspensions each year.

The volunteers have helped to improve many pupils' attitudes by making class more interesting, she said.

They often participate in field trips and, in some cases, form friendships with the children, she said.

Schmeltz said she was especially touched by a midshipman who "adopted" a fifth-grader with academic and behavioral problems.

"He was picking him up on weekends and was a big brother to him," she said. "It really gave that child a new insight on school and how he should behave in school."