There’s been a lot of talk recently about the many problems faced by Baltimore City’s public schools. Rather than feeling hopeless, anxious, or otherwise stymied, here’s one way that some Baltimoreans are taking direct action to make things a little bit better for our city’s students:
They’re adopting an entire class. No, that doesn’t mean they’re taking 30 elementary students home and feeding them graham crackers and orange juice. Instead, the program — run through Johns Hopkins Takes Time for Schools initiative — sends Hopkins employees to specially-chosen city classrooms to help run one-on-one projects, small group activities, and generally provide overall classroom support. Basically, five members of a particular Hopkins office or department can bring their particular skills to energize the classroom. Sometimes that means demonstrating science skills, or helping start a magazine, or teaching kids how to create a map of their own neighborhood.
If you’re a Hopkins employee and want to get involved, make sure you have four co-workers who are similarly interested, and then contact Kathleen Crostic at kcrosti1@jhu.edu or 443-997-0138.
