The State of Education

Last week, Marion Orr made his way to the somewhat secluded campus of Loyola College to speak about Baltimore’s public school system. He started off his powerful speech by saying that Loyola College students can help enact a change in the public school system. Orr said that over twenty years ago a study was done on Baltimore’s future to see what it would be like in the year 2000. The report which was called “Baltimore 2000” was flattering to the school system compared to the city itself. The report called the school system ineffective, undisciplined, and dangerous; the report even said that Baltimore as a city “had a bleak future, growing poorer and more isolated.” The city was at such a low point that one citizen had even said to “blow it up and start over again.” Orr’s speech was interesting, compelling, and yet sad at the same time; so many students in the inner city were barely even getting a mediocre education, and most of the students did not even have an interest in being in school, which has resulted in the adolescent involvement with drugs, alcohol, and crime. His speech related very much so to Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro;” Erza speaks about how it is so easy to get lost within the crowd. This runs parallel with the Baltimore public school system, which is a perfect example of how so many young students get lost in the crowd, and get left behind.
After many improvements, the Baltimore public school system still has many issues: resources are scarce, conditions of the schools are poor, and the performance of the students is alarmingly low. Marion Orr went on to say that education in the city of Baltimore is largely a reflection of poverty. What is so shocking about this fact is that Baltimore is my second home and even though I am offered a great school with many opportunities, I still forget about all inner city students with absolutely no education or opportunities. Poverty can be fixed and the public schools can be much better; although when there is no effort, nothing will change. The city needs to help itself and reach out for help, in order to bounce back from the tragic low that the city is in at the moment. Many people are lost within their own lives without a job, money, food, or even shelter. These people relate to those “faces in the crowd” which Pound writes about. Pound also writes “petals on a wet, black bough,” which symbolizes many petals floating around on the wet bough; this relates to the students in the city of Baltimore. The students are just drifting, not knowing what they are going to do with their lives, and not have any education or knowledge to make that decision. The students can’t even get an education because Baltimore’s public school system is just so incredibly unprepared and unwilling to take them in.
Towards the end of Marion Orr’s speech he talked about what Baltimore’s civic leaders should do; he said they should start community building and community development, as a way to address a connection between education reform and poverty. Once a community is built students and families alike will be able to stay together and go through the same events together and they will be able to learn from one another. Education is sacred and I am so blessed to be receiving an even higher education; Orr gave many astonishing facts about the public school system; if a community is developed, people will be able to work together to establish some sort of a higher education which is exactly what Baltimore is struggling for at the moment. "In a Station of the Metro" Ezra Pound talks about the idea of getting lost in a crowd of similar faces; if Baltimore is able to get motivated about fixing the public schools then no more faces will be sadly lost in the crowd.