Middle School

TEMPTATION KNOCKS LOUDLY on the doors of middle-school students whose parents are still at work when they return from school. These three or four hours provide a window when teen-age pregnancy happens, when juvenile crime soars, when children become crime victims, when teens use drugs. Without structure, these are some of the pitfalls awaiting latchkey children.Although it may sound childish to youths who feel like adults trapped in children's bodies, middle-school students could benefit from after-school programs that provide recreation and academic help.

I CONSIDER MIDDLE school to be a holding pen for adolescents and respite care for their beleaguered parents, and my only complaint with this system is that they don't keep the kids overnight and on weekends.Eleven to 14 is a difficult age, and I wonder if educator Maria Montessori was not correct when she visualized sending these kids to work on farms until they had completed all the physical and emotional changes that make them so unpleasant in close quarters, such as your kitchen while you are making dinner.

JOE AND HIS jailhouse lawyer, Paul, never know when to shut up.These two middle-school boys, who will some day talk themselves into a prison term for a parking ticket, can alibi and negotiate until you wish you were deaf.And that's exactly what they were doing as they attempted to prepare me for a worst-case scenario, report card-wise."A 'C' means average. It means you are like everyone else," said Paul, talking fast and following me around the kitchen as I tried to ignore him. "You want Joe to be like everyone else, don't you?

I am on record as not looking forward to the middle-school years.I have asked every mother I know if there is a way -- short of the institutionalization of my children or me -- that I can get out of being the parent of a middle-school child, and I have been told repeatedly that there is not.The years 11 to 13 are not pretty, but there is no way to get to blossoming young adulthood except through them.My dismay deepened the night of the middle-school open house for incoming sixth-graders. I was looking for an educational vision for children who have mastered reading and writing, and what I got was something that looked like parents' day at summer camp.

Floyd, a German short-haired pointer, knows all about drugs. But that's his job.The friendly dog sniffs out big bundles and even minute amounts of illegal narcotics during his hours working with the state police.He also has another job. He gives demonstrations of his tracking skills with his trainer, Tfc. Ed Karr.The duo delighted middle-school students who were attending a youth drug summit last week at Camp Ramblewood in Darlington."He loves people and loves food," Trooper Karr said. "He gets better treats than me and a chauffeur eight hours a day."

Middle school conference scheduledThe Maryland Middle School Association Spring Conference will take place at North Carroll Middle School, 2401 Hanover Pike, Hampstead, Friday from 7:10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m."Leadership for Social Reform" will be the topic of this year's meeting. The conference provides the background and setting for middle-level educators to discuss and share strategies, ideas and programs aimed at the middle-school student.It is estimated that 600 to 800 educators will gather to select from 90 presentations.

In a cramped engineering classroom at the Johns Hopkins University yesterday morning, 40 students set out to solve problems. A firetruck had to be able to navigate through a forest. A school bus needed to traverse rural areas. A stadium had to be able to withstand a tropical climate. Upperclassmen engineering majors might have struggled to find solutions, but these students, none of whom was older than 14, found answers in about three hours. "That's the purpose of engineering, to improve people's lives," said Asya Shaw, 11, a seventh-grader at Mount Royal Elementary/Middle School.

On Wednesday afternoons, Bryn Mawr School sophomore Lindsay Hamilton can be found in the Roland Park branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library helping Masuma Islam with her homework. Sitting at a small table in the basement, Lindsay goes over Latin, math and other assignments with Masuma, who attends Roland Park Middle School. Lindsay also teaches her organizational skills and memory tricks. "I'm more comfortable asking Lindsay questions," said Masuma, 11, a sixth-grader from the city's Remington neighborhood who has been working with Lindsay since October.

When Mayor Jonathan S. Herman asked the Sykesville Town Council what to discuss with Carroll's school superintendent today, members all had the same answer: air conditioning at the middle school. Charles I. Ecker will meet with officials from all eight towns in the next few months to discuss municipal concerns with the school system. Although temperatures are hovering near the freezing point, Ecker will probably hear a lot about heat today. Herman, a father of four school-aged children, will relay several complaints about temperature and air quality at Sykesville Middle School.

EMMITSBURG - While Maryland children were enjoying summer vacation last week, many of their teachers and principals were in seminar rooms searching for ways to improve reading instruction. A primary concern: the lagging performance of middle-schoolers. Teams from middle schools in all 24 of the state's systems gathered at Mount St. Mary's College for the fourth annual Maryland Reading Network conference, while 100 public school principals focused on reading at a three-day session in suburban Baltimore.

National leaders including President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Eric H. Holder have recently called for a "dialogue on race" in America. Such a conversation is no doubt needed, but it should be noted that for more than 15 years, thousands of Maryland elementary and middle school students participating in the Black Saga Competition have been gaining knowledge and perspective about African-American history that allow them to discuss and reflect on issues about race.

The colorful murals on the side of the Hollins Street Market glittered in the afternoon sun as small knots of middle school students and their teachers walked up and down the street looking astonished at the art they had created. Seven murals made by Baltimore City and Baltimore County public school students had been inserted into the large arches, an art project that celebrates the neighborhood's rich history and the creativity of children unfamiliar with Union Square or Hollins Market.

Chemical odor sickens 18 at middle school 1 A Glen Burnie middle school was evacuated and 18 children were taken to hospitals after staff detected a strong chemical odor just as school started Wednesday morning, according to an Anne Arundel County schools spokesman. Employees at Corkran Middle School noticed the smell about 8 a.m., said Bob Mosier, the spokesman. The school is undergoing renovations, and workers making heating, ventilating and air-conditioning repairs on the roof were using a petroleum-based aluminum coating that is believed to have caused the odor, he said.

Terry McGowan suspected that there was a good chance that Hammond Middle was going to be honored as a National Blue Ribbon School. But the principal of the Laurel school was still shocked when an e-mail arrived last week from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's office notifying her that Hammond Middle was one of eight schools in the state and 314 schools in the country to be named 2009 National Blue Ribbon Schools. Resurrection-St. Paul School in Ellicott City was also honored. Hammond was named a Maryland Blue Ribbon School in December 2008.

Dozens of Baltimore County parents rallied Tuesday in Towson, continuing to push for air conditioning in a Lutherville middle school where they say a renovation project has made the classrooms intolerable on warm days. Ridgely Middle School parents have been seeking a solution for about two years, ever since the school was renovated with design features - tighter windows, lowered ceilings and an insulated roof - to maximize air-conditioning efficiency. But the cooling units were never installed because the project budget did not include money for the equipment, school officials have said.

Eight Maryland schools, including six public and two parochial, were awarded the National Blue Ribbon School status yesterday by the U.S. Department of Education. The distinction is given to schools that have made significant improvement in closing the gap between minority and white achievement or schools whose students have a high level of achievement. Since 1982, 165 public and private schools in Maryland have received the national designation. The eight most recent winners include two Catholic schools, two public high schools, two public middle and two public elementary schools.

New Principal Thomas Saunders hopes The Wilde Lake Way will set the pace for positive change at Wilde Lake Middle School, which was the site of a sexual assault allegation last spring. Saunders' campaign requires staff at the Columbia school to model good behavior and explain expectations to students. In addition, he has made sure that rules and other guidelines are posted throughout the school as constant reminders for the students. "The only thing I can do is to create an environment collaboratively with parents, students and staff," Saunders said.

Despite the growing number of charter schools in Maryland, 3,000 students remain on waiting lists and advocates say legislators should loosen the ties that prevent further growth and support of charters. Some charter schools have so many students who want to go there that they could fill every seat twice, said David Miller, director of the Maryland Charter School Network. City Neighbors Charter School in Baltimore has 198 students and 420 students on the waiting list, said Principal Mike Chalupa.

Baltimore's KIPP Ujima Village Academy is an unqualified success. Despite serving a poor, inner-city population, the charter school routinely posts some of the highest standardized test scores, not just in the city but in the state. Its 86.9 percent pass rate was barely edged out in this year's Maryland School Assessments by crosstown rival Roland Park Middle School (87.3 percent), but it beat out scores of top-quality suburban middle schools, including the likes of Carroll County's Westminster East Middle School, Baltimore County's Dumbarton Middle and Harford's Southampton Middle.

The results of this year's Maryland School Assessments show big gains for Baltimore City. There are now 19 city elementary schools that test in the top one-third of schools statewide, meaning they are just as good as many of the elementary schools in Anne Arundel, Howard and Baltimore counties. And for the first time in more than a decade, the city's school system no longer ranks at the bottom of Maryland school districts. Disparities that have long existed between city kids and their suburban peers and between African-American students and their white counterparts are fading.