Knowing smiles are often exchanged when a Baltimorean asks another where “she/he went to school.”
Wink.
It?s understood that we?re talking about high school, not college. It?s an explanation that a newcomer hears soon after moving here, accompanying counsel on where to find the best crab cakes and learning about “hon” and why we?re way happier to be Baltimoreans than being lumped into the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area.
The cachet of a diploma from one of our numerous and magnificent nonboarding or boarding preparatory schools is significant and valuable for the recipient. Getting a shot at going for one of those diplomas is, of course, a privilege whether your parents pick up the tab or your scholarship or talent allows you to matriculate with a scholarship. And “preparatory,” is tied to being prepared for more privilege in college, contacts and clubs as life goes on.
One of our distinguished private schools made the news recently for its policy of expelling studentsfound with drugs without notifying police. An Examiner survey (to be detailed in a story pegged for next week) shows that the majority of 40 private schools in the market do notify police.
Expulsion?s not a good deal and is tough punishment, of course. But ducking having to face the cops is, and that privilege of the privileged is not one enjoyed by those attending public schools here.
Probably not OK, right?
And the schools can expel with impunity since there are, we suspect, far more who seek entrance than make the cut and gain admission.
Some drug crimes are felonious, of course, and a reasonable person might wonder what level of felony might prompt a private school administrator to call the police ? and whether that judgment is one on which there is a check or a balance.
The Sun?s business statement?
The Baltimore Sun?s parent company bought ForSaleByOwner.com, a company that helps those who think they can sell houses better than Realtors try to do that and pocket the commission.
I?m not at all inclined to fill my own tooth cavities nor sell my own home and am reasonably confident that the first would perhaps, at least figuratively, be even less painful than the second.
The purchase is a business statement of sorts from a newspaper company that relies heavily on the advertising revenues of Realtors and hardly at all on those who would sell their own homes.
Michael Phelps is president and publisher of The Baltimore Examiner.
