My name is James L. Dunbar, and I am widely known in the business community as a successful entrepreneur who founded one of Maryland's largest privately-owned companies right here in Baltimore — Dunbar Armored. My family-owned armored car, cash management and full service security company is one of the larger employers in the region and provides a multitude of security services to banks, retailers, commercial businesses and government entities.
But I am not so widely known as a former young man who was, and remains, a dyslexic. I was a boy who once struggled very hard in his youth to learn in school and adjust to compensate for his disability and a former grade school student who had to regain a sense of self-worth at a private school named Proctor Academy in Andover, New Hampshire after nearly being lost in a public school system that did not at the time understand his disability. I was someone who had to work extra hard as a student to make something of himself.
Because of my life experience I believe I know a little something about the challenges of learning and the critical importance of keeping children (especially the more challenged ones) engaged in productive activities that will lead to their success in life.
I make no pretense to be a professional educator. However, I want to tell you that I believe the new Baltimore County Public Schools policy to eliminate grades for homework is a big mistake which, in the long run, will be counterproductive to the very students it aims to serve ("What's in a grade?" Sept. 3).
If BCPS truly wants to increase the confidence of students in their abilities and improve their sense of self-worth, a good place to start would be to include them in a variety of activities with peers who may have similar disabilities and not to marginalize them. No child should be excluded from activities which can help them to establish a sense of self-worth, be it academics or sports. While all may not compete at the same level or in the same groups, provision should be made for all to be able to participate.
The ability for every child to not be excluded and to participate in activities is absolutely essential to their development and socialization. For me, it was the opportunities provided by the private school that, unlike the public school, enabled me to grow and achieve.
The opportunities afforded to me at Proctor Academy to compete in athletics, to make things in workshops to make things, participate in club activities and gain leadership responsibilities as a dorm leader all contributed to my successful adaptation to learning with a disability, regaining of my self-esteem and the entrepreneurial spirit which enabled me to build a hugely successful business enterprise.
And as for my homework in the private school, it got graded. I knew where I stood and when I needed to improve. When I needed help, I knew to ask for it, and I got it. Grades on homework are an essential part of knowing that one's work in achieving progress is both reviewed and recognized. Eliminating that grading is not the solution to deeper-rooted issues that affect a child's performance.
Rather than settle for such a simplistic and ill-advised policy as set forth in the BCPS Grading and Reporting Procedures Manual of "not grading homework," I agree with Ben Shifrin of the Jemicy School in Owings Mills that the grading system needs to be overhauled to include benchmarks that are critical for success in life ("Are today's students making the grade?" Sept. 7).
In order for children to accomplish things in life and know that they can achieve their goals, they need to be able to see the results of their accomplishments along the way. I encourage BCBS to rethink their new policy on their failing to grade homework and instead focus their efforts on doing the things that really matter in terms of developing our children to enjoy a real sense of self-esteem and future success.
James L. Dunbar, Hunt Valley
The writer is chairman and founder of Dunbar Armored, Inc.