All those devoted to teaching deserve praise and respect, and none more than those who teach where all the school lunches are free, where expectations have been too low for too long, and where every hand goes up when the guest speaker asks: "How many of you know a family member who's in prison?"
Ed Morman was there, in a classroom at Patapsco Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore's Cherry Hill, when a former prison warden asked that question. Every hand went up again when the kids were asked if they'd ever been inside a prison for a visit.
Morman wasn't surprised. No one who pays attention to life in Baltimore should have been.
"These are lovely kids," Morman says during a conversation about his brief experience as a math teacher. "And it breaks my heart."
What breaks his heart: Too many of the kids behind the clock on academic achievement, too many from poverty, too many from homes where good grades have never been valued, and too many too noisy and unruly, making teaching them almost impossible.
Morman wishes there were more moments like the one "when eighth-grader Alexis jumped up and whooped that she understood something her math teacher had explained."
"There was at least one day a week when I felt like I was really accomplishing something," Morman says.
But that wasn't enough. Teachers who can handle the behavior issues and still inspire Baltimore's children to learn - those are special people, Morman says.
He wasn't one of them, by his own estimation.
A native New Yorker, he had been a librarian at medical institutions, including Johns Hopkins, for many years. Last spring, looking for a new job, he decided to give teaching a try and enrolled in the Baltimore City Teaching Residency, an attractive program for professionals who seek a career change and who wish to "positively impact the lives of the students who need them the most."
By the time I knew Morman had stepped into teaching, he was stepping out of it. In April, he sent an e-mail to numerous friends announcing his resignation. He'd found another position - as librarian with the National Federation of the Blind.
