FINDING LIGHT - PART II

Working the Baltimore gap

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"The kids must be terrible," people would say to Earle when he'd share the location of his teaching assignment. This was probably the reaction he expected for the first couple of months.

But "after a while, I began to resent this response."

Bit by bit, Earle made inroads with his students at Cherry Hill. But school administrators weren't making it easy.

In addition to the expected load of social studies for the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades; they assigned this first-year teacher science for the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. A total of six preparations.

"Three," claimed Ronald Spruill, Earle's mentor and confidante at Cherry Hill, "is the maximum number of class preparations allowed by our contract with the district.

"Despite the load, Robbie made very thoughtful and innovative outstanding lesson plans for each class.

"On top of it all, he ran the recycling program."
Spruill fought the administration on Earle's behalf – pointing out that he also lacked a background in science — but to no avail.

"Robbie dealt with it," Spruill said, "He didn't make excuses."

But Earle did choose to spend his second year teaching at KASA (Knowledge And Success Academy) College Preparatory School.

At KASA, an old facility that is being refashioned after The Equity Project in New York City, Earle teaches seventh-grade Social Studies. There are fewer preparations, but still problems.

In November 2010, the seventh-grade English teacher at KASA quit. ("Another case of adults abandoning these kids," Earle pointed out.)

"So with the support of the school," Earle explained, "I stopped teaching them social studies and began to teach them English. I just had them read and write about social studies.

"And the kids responded. Their essays on totalitarianism and democracy were really good. I'd share them with anyone.

"Success is possible when a consistent teacher really wants students to learn."