education : Buzz

The Boys of Baraka, a movie about inner-city kids in Baltimore sent to a boarding school in Kenya, played at the Maryland Film Festival seven years ago.

It once again is in the spotlight, however, as the filmmakers are featured in a New York Times story on the creative tension between documentary film partners.

""Disagreements are an inherent, and productive, part of their working relationship," Grady tells the Times. “You’ve got creativity, money and ego involved.”

The two will feature their work again at the Maryland Film Festival this year with their movie Detropia. 

US President Barack Obama? Check. That British crooner who swept the Grammy awards this year. Check.

Not surprising finds on Time's list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. 

There's one that Baltimoreans can be proud of. Freeman A Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, made the list that even Mark Zuckerberg was left out of. 

"But perhaps the most envied science program in the country is at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County," Time writes. "That's where Freeman A. Hrabowski III, 61, has spent 20 years as president turning a humble commuter school into one of the nation's leading sources of African Americans who get Ph.D.s in science and engineering." 

You can read more about him here.  

Desk a clutter?

Perhaps the National Association of Professional Organizers can help. The group's 4,200 members met during their annual conference in Baltimore this month and the New York Times interviewed Angela Wallace, president of the California-based organization. 

"The same organizing principles apply to stuff, paper, space and time," she tells the Times. "One basic organizing principle is putting things you use more often closer to you."

Are you writing this down?

Baltimore money manager T. Rowe Price released a study this month asking parents -- and their kids -- about how to save and make money. 

While three-quarters of parents say they talk to kids about money, a majority say they are not always honest with kids about money, writes Forbes.com. 

"Parents just aren’t comfortable talking finances," writes Forbes. "In fact, the survey revealed that they are more comfortable talking about bullying, drugs, and smoking than family finances or investing, and find talking about investing just as difficult as 'the talk' about puberty and coming of age."

You can read the rest of the Forbes write-up here. 

Children's museums are increasingly focusing on social outreach, and not just playful activities, writes the New York Times. 

The newspaper cites several children's museums that are using exhibits to target everything from childhood obesity to homeless students. Port Discovery Children's Museum in Baltimore has adapted exhibits to accommodate kids with special needs, the Times writes. 

You can read the story here. 

There was a lot of buzz this month about U.S. News & World Report's ranking Johns Hopkins University ranking No. 2 on its list of top medical schools. 

But another Baltimore school has also made the grade. In its list of top fine arts schools in the nation, U.S. News ranks the Maryland Institute College of Art No. 7. It tied with Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. for the No. 7 spot. 

Yale University took the No. 1 spot. You can see the rest of the ranking here. 

Interior decorators are designing a conference in Baltimore.

The Interior Design Educators Council will hold their annual meeting at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore, March 19-22. The event gets a mention in Dwell.com, which notes that keynote speaker will be Jo Heinz, a managing principle of Staffelbach in Dallas.

You can read more about it here. 

The James Beard Foundation Awards are known as the Oscars of the culinary world.

And this year the foundation has honored three restaurant stars in Maryland. 

The foundation recognized Woodberry Kitchen's Spike Gjerde, Charleston's Cindy Wolf and Volt's Bryan Voltaggio among the best chefs in the mid-Atlantic. Charleston was also honored for its wine program and as an outstanding restaurant. You can see the entire list of nominees here. 

We've heard the term metro applied to all things urbane -- think metrosexual.

Now higher education expert Evan S. Dobelle has ranked the top 10 "metroversities," or towns in which universities are a major economic engine driver. 

Dobelle puts Baltimore No. 3 on this list, after Boston and Raleigh. San Jose and Philadelphia round out the top five.  San Francisco, Seattle and Nashville (tied for No. 7), Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. also made the top 10 cut. 

You can read the story in Baltimore Fishbowl here and find the press release here. 

Education Week ranks Maryland's public schools the top in the nation, followed by Massachusetts, New York, Virginia and Arizona. The publication looked at school finances, student achievement and success later in life, state assessments and school accountability.

U.S. News & World Report analyzed the results.

"Maryland tops the list, with generally good school finances, quality teachers, and students who leave high school ready for college," the magazine writes. You can read the rest of the story here.

George Soros' Open Society Foundations has tapped John F. Kennedy School of Government Professor Christopher Stone to take the helm, the New York Time writes.

The foundation works to create vibrant democracies by shaping public policy in more than three dozen cities around the world, including Baltimore.

Stone will succeed Aryeh Neier in July. You can read more about the transition here.

This Baltimore Sun blog reports the latest confirmation of Baltimore County's strong arts teaching base. According to the article, Linda Popp, the county's visual arts coordinator, said state awards are often given to teachers who make strong contributions to their communities as well as their schools. This year's winners mentored colleagues, coordinated exhibits and found other ways to take art into the community. Read the entire post here.

Work being done at the Walters Museum on "The Archimedes Palimpsest" has drawn the attention of the New York Times.

From the source:

The Archimedes Palimpsest has precisely this history. It really does begin with a 10th-century copy of Archimedes’ third-century B.C. writings. Three centuries later they were scraped off the parchment, which was reused — creating a “palimpsest.” And while there aren’t enough dead bodies or secret cabals to support a full-fledged thriller, there really is a sense of excitement in the account of the book’s history, restoration and meanings, at an exhibition at the Walters Art Museum here: “Lost and Found: The Secrets of Archimedes.”

Almost nothing about the tale is banal or ordinary. In a companion book, “The Archimedes Codex” (Da Capo), William Noel, the museum’s curator of manuscripts, describes how the saga was brought to its conclusion. In 1998, after reading about the Palimpsest’s sale at a Christie’s auction to an anonymous purchaser for $2 million, the museum’s director, Gary Vikan, suggested to Mr. Noel that he discover who bought it and whether it might be exhibited at the Walters.

Read the full story here.

MICA has found itself on the receiving end of a $10 million gift, its largest ever.

From the Sun:

The Maryland Institute College of Art announced Wednesday that it has received a $10 million gift, the largest in its history, which will be used to expand graduate programs and research.

The gift was bestowed by longtime college trustee George L. Bunting Jr. and his wife, Anne Bunting.

"Once again, George and Anne have redefined what true leadership can do to propel the college ahead," said Michael Franco, the college's vice president of advancement. "Not only was Mr. Bunting instrumental in helping MICA see the important role of graduate study in its future, he and his wife also stepped forward with this wonderful gift of endowment to help ensure the college will have the necessary resources to pursue this path."

Read the full story.

Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation has partnered with the City of Memphis to help troubled youths.

From the source:

"Memphis' success reducing the number of youths in lockup has earned the city a coveted partnership with a multibillion-dollar private foundation.

"Yes, we're coming," Gail D. Mumford, with the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation, announced Friday at a luncheon at Shelby County Juvenile Court.

Casey, one of the nation's largest private foundations, has spent more than six decades working to help disadvantaged youths, including 15 years focusing on reforming juvenile justice centers across the country."


Read more at The Commercial Appeal.