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Plogger Gallery

Students in Baltimore photographed conditions in their schools – both aspects that they were proud of and aspects they wished could be fixed or changed. Students focused primarily on facilities in order to support a successful campaign to increase state funding for public school facilities by well over $100 million.

         Click on photos to see full-size images and descriptions.
  • Despite the lack of funding in our schools, as well as the fact that the arts and music programs are the first programs to lose funding, we keep painting. More importantly, we paint to create messages and push the envelope further than crayons and colored pencils. My teacher told us to explore pop art, colored pencils, and watercolor simultaneously in these paintings, and she hung them all over her wall in a proud, muralistic manner. Art simply cannot be stopped… -- Unique Robinson (Grade 12)
    Art

  • Auditorium Chairs

  • Bathroom Sign
  • These are books in need of a new home. I took this picture because I wanted to show some of the conditions in the school system and the way students and teachers treat the books because we don\\\'t have any new books. The books get torn up and we can\\\'t read them and can\\\'t always do what the curriculum calls for. -- Richard Robinson (Grade 8)
    Bookshelf
  • This window has been broken for months. Insulation problems lead to higher energy costs. -- Ian Starks (Age 15)
    Broken Window
  • This is a picture of me at cheerleading practice. It is a great way to exercise and is something fun too. We practice in school 3 times a week. I\\\'m glad school has activities [like cheerleading]. -- Shaniece Frazier (Grade 6)
    Cheerleading Practice
  • My picture shows a ceiling that fell in. I took this picture to show the bad condition our classes are in. I wanted this picture to say [the school] needed help. Monique Wells (Grade 7): It makes me feel scared because one day someone can walk past it and it might fall on them. If we have a storm while we\\\'re in school we could have a flood. Sometimes water comes through the ceiling and it\\\'s hard to pay attention. Marcia Young: How can you expect a child to learn when they are worried about the ceiling caving in on them? If this problem was to be fixed, which it should be, the school would be providing a good, stable, safe learning environment for its students. -- Nia Hampton (Grade 8)
    Falling Ceiling
  • This is one of many bookshelves [in the library] without any books… makes it hard to study. -- Nicholas Brady (Grade 11)
    Library Shelves

  • Playground Through Fence
  • This is my principal. He\\\'s a nice principal and tries to help the kids out. If we have a problem he\\\'ll talk to us and tell us how we can prevent the problem from happening. -- Bianca McNair (Grade 6)
    Principal
  • I took a picture of a broken heater and part of a student. It was in my art classroom. It\\\'s still broken. Shanae Adams: In the winter time it\\\'s cold in the school building and we have no heat and when you\\\'re cold you shiver and you can\\\'t really focus, then the teacher gets mad because you keep complaining and that causes them to stop teaching. -- Monique Wells (Grade 7)
    Radiator and Student

  • Self-portrait at School
  • This picture has a lot of garbage. It has a ball, newspaper, a hubcap, a metal fence, candy wrappers, etc. All that garbage is floating on dirty water. This is a staircase to get to the basement of the school - looks like nobody\\\'s been down there in a while. I took this picture because that is definitely a place they need to fix up. -- DJ Marsalis (Grade 8)
    Stairwell with Garbage
  • From K-12th grade, we’re a wasted cause. We “learn,” we do poorly on tests, we get expelled from school for fighting. Truth is, though, despite this stereotype displayed in the media, we care. We recognize that the failures and anger of city students is a product of our poor funding. Because of this, some of us channel our anger into our protests, and rather than fighting other students, we fight the real criminal: those that have the money, see the problem, but make every excuse to not solve the problem. We’ll keep trying… our Baltimore-bred spirits are not so easily broken. -- Unique Robinson (Grade 12)
    Student Protest
  • My homeroom/Language Arts teacher, as you can tell, is an upbeat teacher who makes learning fun. She is always trying to get the best from her students and keeps us laughing. Her name is Ms. Saunders and in her class your mind is not allowed to wander from the lessons that she teaches. I believe it is good to have a teacher that keeps your attention and is fun because you can actually learn something. -- Sahara Scott (Grade 8)
    Teacher
  • \'Where’s the Teaching?\' is the name of this photo. This television symbolizes how teachers use other materials to teach extremely large classes. Where is the student-teacher interaction? Where is the one-on-one engagement between the two? Three times out of the week we watch “documentaries” that “relate” to our unit of studies. When we do finally receive work from out teacher it is not relevant to our studies. This kind of teacher is not crucial to the development of students’ minds. -- Eric Harris (Grade 9)
    TV as Teacher

  • Toilet with Broken Seat

  • Water Fountain