The Baltimore Sun's editorial "Warning signs" (Jan. 18) makes valid observations about the strengths, weaknesses and challenges facing Maryland's public school systems. The editorial mentions the ideas being pushed by state schools chief Nancy S. Grasmick -- increasing the length of time before teachers can get tenure, linking teacher evaluations to student performance and providing incentives for teachers to go into areas where they're most needed.
I am troubled that the focus of administrators continues to be solely on teachers. I know from experience that a child will struggle to succeed in school unless he or she has an involved family or strong support system. Students need to know that they will be held accountable at school and at home. The best principals, the best teachers and the best lesson plans may all be for naught if a child's family is not involved in his or her education.
In addition to holding schools accountable for a child's success, education policy makers must develop a way to get and keep parents involved. A friend's daughter, a new teacher in Baltimore County, recently had one parent show up for American Education Week. Unfortunately, the parent who showed was her own father; none of the parents of her 25 students came for even a five minute visit.
Education is very important to me and has touched my life in many ways. My father dropped out of school in the 6th grade, and my mother was a high school graduate. I am one of six children; we lived in Baltimore City and attended Baltimore City schools. Of my parents' six children, three graduated from high school and three dropped out to eventually earn a GED. I am the only one in my family to graduate from college, but my path to a degree was very long and hard. I started college in 1989 at the age of 31, received an AA in 1996, a BA in 2000 and an MA in 2006. I took classes at night and on the weekends because I worked full time. Because education is so important to my husband and me, we worked very hard to instill a love of learning in our three daughters. Our oldest daughter will receive her M.D. on May 7, our middle daughter is a teacher in a Baltimore County elementary school, and our youngest daughter will be registered nurse in July. We were very involved with all aspects of their education.
In September 2009, I started teaching at a local community college. My students attended both city and county high schools. I taught Basic Writing I, Basic Writing II and English Composition 101. I was absolutely stunned by how little most of my students knew. Although they were all high school graduates, none had read "The Scarlet Letter," none had heard of Marie Antoinette, and one student insisted that "along" was not a word and that is why he used "alone" in its place in an essay.
To try to understand the background of my students, I had them read and discuss an essay titled "Why Johnny Can't Fail." This essay was written by a teacher who was chastised for failing students who could not do the required work. When this same teacher "got with the program" and increased his social promotion rate, he was nominated for quite a few teaching awards. Many of my students told me that as long as that sat quietly and did not cause any trouble, they were passed from grade to grade. They did not appear to be angry that they were cheated of an education.
If the children in school today are our future, we may be in serious trouble. We owe it to them and ourselves to ensure that they really do get an education in school and that they are not moved along simply to meet a quota or to boost self-esteem. Perhaps Ms. Grasmick and her counterparts should focus their attentions less on teachers and more on increasing family support and involvement. While I do not think family involvement is the only answer, I think all other solutions will ultimately fail without it.
Lisa A. Mack, Baltimore
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