He Has More Sense Than Adults

This "kid" has more sense than the Baltimore City Public School administration and teacher's union. I include the teacher's union because it seems to me if teachers are getting regularly assaulted in school and the administration regularly returns the offenders to the same school, the teacher's union should be raising hell and calling for strikes.

This opinion article is written by a Baltimore city public high school ninth grader:

Take my life, for example: Every day I come to school with a fresh mind and am ready to complete my work and do the right thing in school. But other kids behave differently when they are not around those with authority.

Students want to test who will stand up for themselves. A lot of good kids are trying to fit in (by being like everyone else) and, therefore, they decide to become gang members or drug dealers.

Gang members are jumping kids for no reason at all, and so other kids say to themselves, "Well, they are jumping me anyway, so I am going to become one of them to be safe."

I think it is easy for a good kid to turn bad. But it is hard for a bad kid to turn good. And sometimes it is hard to find the other kids who really want to do well.

I think that students will be motivated to do well if others will stand up with them. It takes one person at a time, but it's scary to start.

As I've explained to my mom and dad, it is hard to do good things when kids are messing with you. Kids want to tell adults what is going on, but then other kids will consider you a rat or a snitch. Then that's a problem for the person who told.

So a good student sometimes feels stuck because he or she does not know what to do. That scares a lot of students.

To the people of Baltimore, I say: Save the kids who want to be a part of something good and keep them from being influenced by others who are making bad choices. Help the good students to know that they are not the only ones who are trying to do the right thing.

A lot of kids are trying hard but need some help or advice. We are not a waste of time.

In September of 2006, I wrote about a meeting I was having with then Gov. Ehrlich's aides concerning education. The first three bullet points dealt with controlling the school.

• Disruptive students get suspended. The parents must go to the school to get the students back into school.
• Kids with multiple suspensions are suspended and not allowed to return to school until the students are tested to find academic deficiencies. This is done because many kids who are disruptive in school, are also having academic problems. They may also be having personal problems but that is a fine line that I don't want to cross with government intrusion.
• School and parents/guardians must agree to a plan to bring kid back up to speed. This may include being transfered to another school just for that purpose.

I made that the first bullet points for a reason; in order for learning to occur, a learning environment must exist. A learning environment does not exist with disruptive students. All of my writing comes down to

Read the entire article.

Blow up the damn Baltimore City Public School System!