“I

treat all of my students the same. I don’t play favorites” is a fairly common claim made in schools across the country. And while well-intentioned, in a city like Baltimore, where many of our students come from homes that lack sufficient resources, treating students “the same” can sometimes mean widening the gaps between the haves and the have-nots. The best and most dedicated teachers among us find innovative ways to create not

but for their students. And when entire school communities work together in this effort, we create the proverbial village that nurtures the whole child.

While there are many things that fall outside of our immediate control, there are two things that school communities can do to directly impact all of our students: implement and teach curriculum that includes (rather than exiles) the students we are teaching and fully invest ourselves into our students not just as ID numbers but as people we genuinely care about. Since 1997, Baltimore City College has been dedicated to the International Baccalaureate (IB) program to better prepare our students to be active participants in the global world and to be exposed to a rigorous academic curriculum that would prepare them to be successful in college. With course work that calls on students to engage with the works of Allende, Adichie, Coates and local authors like D. Watkins, students see themselves reflected in the world they are learning about.