Imagine if everyone in Maryland read the same book at the same time…

While reading is often a solitary pursuit, what kinds of conversations could we have if people were reading the same book—on the train to work, on the beach, in a classroom, during their lunch break, or for a book club—and with whom could we connect or reconnect in our communities?

Thoreau said, “How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.” Sharing the life-changing ideas you find in a great book with your co-workers, fellow students, friends, family, and neighbors is the essence of the Maryland Humanities Council’s One Maryland One Book Program.

Join in Maryland’s only statewide community reading program! Pick up a copy of this year’s selected book, Song Yet Sung by James McBride, to read this summer (you may know McBride’s best-selling memoir, The Color of Water).  Then look for book discussions and related programs at your local public library and other locations around the state in September and October, so you can share your thoughts about this provocative book and listen to what others have to say about it.

Set on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in the 1850s, Song Yet Sung weaves an intricate and gripping tale of escaped slaves, free blacks, and slave-catchers. The book centers on The Dreamer, an enslaved woman whose gift for visions of the future quickly reaches mythic proportions following her escape from a local plantation.

The Maryland Humanities Council will host a tour by Song Yet Sung author James McBride this fall.  McBride will speak at eight venues across the state—from the Baltimore Book Festival on September 27 to Dorchester County, where the novel is set, on October 28. Click here for event information.

Our more than 70 community partners will host free public programs related to the theme and topics of Song Yet Sung statewide. Community partners are as diverse as The Red Canoe Children’s Bookstore in Baltimore to the Maryland Correctional Library System. Private book clubs and informal groups are encouraged to participate also. Join us!

Let’s be audacious enough to get school accountability right.  Let’s hold schools accountable for preparing children and youth for life instead of for tests.  Throughout American history, leaders have asked that schools help students develop: (1) the abilities to read,  to write, and to compute, and basic knowledge of geography, history and science; (2) the abilities to analyze information and solve problems; (3)  enthusiasm for the arts and literature; (4) qualifications for the workplace; (5) the abilities to communicate and get along with others from varied backgrounds and to take responsibility for one’s actions; (6) knowledge of how government works and of how to participate in community life; (7) good habits of nutrition and exercise, and (8) self-confidence, respect for others, and the ability to resist peer pressure.

If those are our goals then we will need more than one test in addition to measures of accountability other than tests.  We will need: (1) information on the academic growth of students on a variety of measures; (2) student work samples and/or observations of them solving problems; (3) samples of their art work and performances; (4) demonstrations of their workplace qualifications; (5) demonstrations that staff and students work together positively, and that adults use interventions to restore relationships when interactions become negative; (6) demonstrations of students’ participation in community life and of their knowledge of how government works; (7) observations of students’ food choices and exercising, and, (8) interviews with students to understand how they feel about themselves and others, and how independent they are in their decision-making.

Accountability done right is never simple, and accountability is too important to do on the cheap.  The costs of doing education wrong are too high for us to continue to get accountability wrong.

What do the American Association of Pediatrics, Robin Henig of the New York Times, and Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, have in common? They all believe in the power of play. Add to that list Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, who promotes play at children’s museums to ignite curiosity; and zoologist John Byers whose research sparked many other studies showing the impact of play on the growth of the cerebellum.

A recent report of the Alliance for Childhood states: “The power of play as the engine of learning in early childhood and as a vital force for young children’s physical, social, and emotional development is beyond question.” But playing is just as important for adults, as evidenced by a recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers followed 469 people older than 75 for five years; and found that those who played board, tile, and card games had a reduced risk of dementia.

The power of play is prominent in the findings of academicians, e.g., Hirsh-Pasek and Golinkoff’s Einstein Never Used Flashcards, business and sports professionals (Kevin Carroll’s Red Rubber Ball at Work: elevate your game through the hidden power of play), and prominent physicians like Hendrik Mamorare at the Sisulu Cardiac Centre in Africa who found that surgery demands similar skills—resourcefulness and imagination—to those he learned in childhood play.

Tina Bruce, professor at the London Metropolitan University, once said, “Play is like a reservoir full of water. The deeper the reservoir, the more water can be stored in it, and used during times of drought.”

Particularly during these times of economic drought, playing more—to enhance learning, memory, curiosity, and well-being—seems like a good, if not audacious, idea for Baltimore.

Everyone has an opinion about school food. 

That’s because everyone who has attended school is a subject matter expert—those who finished high school have been exposed to approximately 2,400 lunches that were either eaten, ignored, or trashed.  Our consciousness of the nutritional value and quality of ingredients of these meals heightens when we send our own children off to school.  Without truly knowing what is in these lunches and breakfasts, parents with the financial means pack lunch each day for their children.  But for approximately 80% of the families sending their children to public schools in Baltimore, this is not a viable option.  

Certainly, there are many contributing factors in society that are to blame for the decline in health for America’s youth.  Isolating food served in schools is shortsighted.  However, we do know that a learning opportunity for healthy eating habits is, for the most part, lost in our schools.

Consider:

• Obesity is a major epidemic in America that claims 300,000 lives each year. 
• African-American women are 70% more likely to be obese than non-Hispanic whites. 
• African-American children are 1.3 times as likely to be overweight than their non-Hispanic counterparts. 
• In Baltimore City, 37% of all students in high school are overweight or at-risk of becoming overweight.    

Schools serve as the primary source of nutrition for millions of American schoolchildren.  Unfortunately, existing food options have not served this population well.  With the rate of increase in the costs of labor and goods exceeding the adjustments in federal reimbursement rates, school districts face the daunting task of delivering nutritious and appealing meals at minimal cost.  Some school districts opt to outsource some or all the food service operation to private companies who deliver a marginally better product.  However, these companies must generate profits, thereby skewing the incentive to provide the most nutritious and delicious foods possible. 

But what if there was another option—one that placed taste and quality of meals above all else?  What if the bottom line was students’ educational and health outcomes?  What if schools’ kitchens were utilized to actually cook food?  What if nutrition and etiquette were part of the educational curriculum?  What if commodities could be purchased locally?  What if a prominent chef were to serve as the creative force in designing delicious and nutritious meals?

A non-profit organization specializing in school food production is a fresh new alternative.  A non-profit organization would hire staff to utilize the cooking kitchens already in place in schools, and reinvest all revenue back into the quality and production of meals.  A local “celebrity chef” would spearhead the creation of the menus and generate significant interest.  Participating schools would commit to funding a nutrition and etiquette leader to compliment the meals served.  Baltimore has gained national attention with its recent focus to emphasize the value of proper nutrition in schools.  Any school district will find it easy to integrate a non-profit model within its overall food program.

With today’s scarce resources, all initiatives must demonstrate effectiveness through measurable results.  This non-profit would be the first food provider in the nation to partner with prominent health institutions to administer and analyze the relationship between healthy meals consumed and educational and health outcomes.  With favorable outcomes, this model can shift the entire school food paradigm.