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Baltimore City student graduates without learning to read - "I know I'm not the only one"
https://foxbaltimore.com ^ | Monday, February 21st 2022 | by Chris Papst

Posted on 02/23/2022 5:27:42 AM PST by Red Badger

BALTIMORE (WBFF) — Recent Project Baltimore reports have exposed how some Baltimore City high school students are far behind in their education. Now, one woman is sharing her story as a Baltimore City student who graduated from high school without learning how to read.

Debora Prestileo is 41 years old. She’s a 1999 graduate of Patterson High School, who 23 years later, still struggles to read.

“It’s embarrassing sometimes,” Prestileo told Project Baltimore. “Going into stores, like if I go into Walmart, and I’ve got to ask for help. Sometimes people laugh at me.”

Prestileo has a learning disability, caused in part by a hearing impairment that wasn’t addressed until recently. She’s partially deaf, which severely impacted her ability to learn.

Debora Prestileo is 41 years old. She’s a 1999 graduate of Patterson High School, who 23 years later, still struggles to read (WBFF)

“My life is hard. When you can’t read your mail, you can’t read nothing, it’s hard,” she said.

Prestileo attended Baltimore City Public Schools for 12 years. She says she was given an IEP, or individualized education program, designed for students with learning disabilities. With an IEP, she should have been given extra help, tutoring, specialized lessons. Instead, she says she was given the answers.

“Some teachers would give me, like if we’re taking a test, they would give me the paper, so I can write the answers down, so I wouldn’t fail the class. And I’m like, ‘well, that’s not teaching me, that’s just helping me cheat,’” Prestileo said.

According to her high school transcript, Prestileo got a 74 in English her freshman year. In 10th grade, she earned a 78, a C+. By 11th grade, her English score dropped to a 62. Her senior year of high school, she passed English with a 68, though she couldn’t read her assignments.

According to her high school transcript, Prestileo passed English all four years of high school (WBFF)

“They passed me. They just passed me along to get me out of the school,” Prestileo told Project Baltimore. “They knew I didn’t know how to read. They knew I didn’t know how to do a lot of stuff. But they didn’t care.”

Prestileo earned a certificate of completion in June of 1999 and walked across the stage at graduation. When she looks back at high school, what she remembers is embarrassment and ridicule from other students and teachers. The shame still follows her.

“To this day, I still get laughed at and talked about, ‘oh this person don’t know how to read,’ Prestileo said. “Bullied, to this day, and it’s not fair. You know, it’s hard for me.”

A recent Project Baltimore investigation found most of the current students at Patterson High School are far behind in both math and reading. Seventy-seven percent of the high schoolers, according to one assessment, are reading at elementary school levels. With a dropout rate of 29% and a college enrollment rate of 21%, more Patterson students quit school than enroll in higher education.

“It makes me mad. It breaks my heart. It’s sad that they’re still doing it to these children,” Prestileo said. “It’s sad, and I’m angry about it.”

When Prestileo was a student at Patterson, she had dreams of becoming a veterinarian. She wanted a career and a family. But she knew, even then, those dreams were out of reach.

“That was my dream, having kids. Being married, having kids, a bunch of kids. But that got crushed, because I can’t teach my children, I can’t help them with their homework, or nothing. And then, if I can’t help them, they are going to be just like me. And I wasn’t going to bring a child into this world, where I can’t teach them.”

A recent Project Baltimore investigation found most of the current students at Patterson High School are far behind in both math and reading (WBFF)

Prestileo never did have children. She never became a veterinarian. She tried working at a restaurant but was scared to even clean the tables because she couldn’t read the labels on the cleaning supplies. She hasn’t had a job in years. But she did get married.

“I’m blessed. I have a husband that understands my reading situation and helps me every day with everything,” said Prestileo.

Her husband helps her with everyday tasks, like reading her mail and answering text messages. She’s made a life for herself, in spite of everything. But it’s not a life she wishes on anyone else.

“I know I’m not the only one. I know it’s a lot of people out here, and I don’t want children out there like me,” Prestileo said. “I want them to learn how to read, and know how to get through life, and be able to do their dream job, to be able to have a family. I don’t want nobody out there like me.”


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Education; Society
KEYWORDS: baltimore; bidenvoters; blackkk; deboraprestileo; highschool; highschoolgrads; illiteracy; maryland; readingisracist; wboopi
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To: Poser

“....put them all in a big room called Special First Grade ....”

Room locked and if necesary chained to their seat!


41 posted on 02/23/2022 7:03:13 AM PST by Reily
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To: Reily

Don’t forget metal detectors, a separate external entrance, and armed police officers (as many as necessary).


42 posted on 02/23/2022 7:07:43 AM PST by Poser (Cogito ergo Spam - I think, therefore I ham)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar
I remember reading of the same problem back in the 1970s in which certain football players graduated college and still could not read a word.

In the late 80s and early 90s, my older cousin was an English teacher at LSU. Her sole assignment there, in her words, was to "teach the black football players how to read". She washed out pretty early.

43 posted on 02/23/2022 7:10:19 AM PST by LittleBillyInfidel (This tagline has been formatted to fit the screen. Some content has been edited.)
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To: Red Badger
I know that I have a tough time learning new tricks. I'm 72 now. When I was 41 years old I tried to learn Chinese. Even at that age it was next to impossible. Reduced hearing didn't help much with that either.

It is very important to coax very young children into the learning mode. Their sponge-brains soak up knowledge and skills really fast and with high retention.

Parents really need to be there before their kids reach school age. Now I think homeschooling is the best way to go. I used to think public schools were OK; however, they just are not. Public schools are destructive.

44 posted on 02/23/2022 7:13:43 AM PST by GingisK
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To: wny

Teachers Unions.....the very best in incompetence...

************

But competent when taking care of their OWN interests.


45 posted on 02/23/2022 7:16:55 AM PST by Starboard
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To: GingisK

Can’t t each an old dog new tricks.

I have a 17 year old dog that just looks at me if I try to teach him anything new, like ‘Go away, where’s my food, leave me alone.”....... ................


46 posted on 02/23/2022 7:22:26 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger

Teachers Union..American Taliban


47 posted on 02/23/2022 7:34:13 AM PST by rrrod (6)
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To: rrrod

“Tolley Bonn” as Obozo used to say, trying to sound intellectual....................


48 posted on 02/23/2022 7:40:05 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger
The education system has been infiltrated, subverted, and destroyed. Yes, destroyed. The current institutions are like zombies. Animated corpses of an education system. Students who do learn to read are de facto home schooled while attending the zombie schools.

So it's not something to be fixed by electing conservatives to the school board, because there really are no government schools, just zombies wearing the bodies of their victims.

It has to start again from scratch. Home school or cooperative schools among the like minded.

49 posted on 02/23/2022 7:45:16 AM PST by Salman (It's not a "slippery slope" if it was part of the program all along. )
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To: Salman

They are desperately trying to shut down home schooling....................


50 posted on 02/23/2022 7:49:16 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger

Obviously, it’s those dang Republicans! /s


51 posted on 02/23/2022 8:03:10 AM PST by ExTxMarine (Diversity is necessary; diverse points of views will not be tolerated.)
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To: Red Badger

Why didn’t the parentSSSS step up and work with her at home? Oh, but that would take effort and work on their part. Some parents don’t understand a little bit of effort on their part at young ages pays off a billion times more later on.


52 posted on 02/23/2022 8:33:05 AM PST by bgill (Which came first, the vax or the virus?)
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To: Red Badger; Pxzftrnqfrn; I want the USA back; God luvs America; Betty Jane; RobertoinAL; ...
This letter I wrote discusses the primary reason we and my two boy’s families may soon end up in Florida or Texas. In Oregon the people who write this nonsense have a super majority in the legislature.

From: Lars Larson Sent: Friday, September 10, 2021 1:47 PM To: Retain Mike Subject: Re: Eliminating Educational Standards

Pretty crazy isn't it?

On Fri, Sep 10, 2021 at 1:44 PM Retain Mike wrote:

As a new school year begins, students will no longer be required to demonstrate skills in reading, writing, and math. For the next five years, an Oregon high school diploma will be no guarantee of academic achievement, but only of participation in a system with undefined parameters. The legislators, school districts, and governor supporting Senate Bill 744 saw that this “will benefit Oregon’s Black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color”.

So now we have moved to the position held by many 19th century abolitionists. When I read The Life and Times of Fredrick Douglass, one passage always stayed with me. After speaking to an abolitionist audience, Douglass considered the evening a great success, because he concluded his talk believing these people were convinced, he was equally human with them. He mentioned this as a significant event, because even the strongest supporters of black freedom questioned whether these people were as fully human. If educators would treat these people as individuals, they would design programs allowing an opportunity for commensurate achievement.

I remember Dr. Martin Luther King saying, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character…..little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”

I guess the statement still makes sense to me.

53 posted on 02/23/2022 8:43:16 AM PST by Retain Mike ( Sat Cong)
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To: Red Badger

I disagree. For example, lots of adults learn languages with other writing systems, such as Japanese or Arabic.


54 posted on 02/23/2022 8:45:17 AM PST by FoxInSocks ("Hope is not a course of action." — M. O'Neal, USMC)
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To: Red Badger
When public schooling and compulsory education came in the 19th century, the then ascendant faction of the ruling class believed a literate populace was good for everyone (including of course themselves).

In the course of time people got used to the idea that it was a necessary function of government. And a service they expect by right.

Now we have a ruling class that fears a literate populace, but they don't dare say that openly. So they use less direct methods.

I agree teachers' unions are a bad idea, but they are not the cause of this. They are only following orders, if you get my drift.

55 posted on 02/23/2022 8:45:21 AM PST by Salman (It's not a "slippery slope" if it was part of the program all along. )
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To: bwest

He seems to be doing a fine job ending civilization without the nuclear weapon.


56 posted on 02/23/2022 8:51:40 AM PST by Gil4 (And the trees are all kept equal by hatchet, ax and saw)
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To: wny

Teachers Unions.....the very best in incompetence...
= = =

and in incontinence.


57 posted on 02/23/2022 9:02:01 AM PST by Scrambler Bob (My /s is more true than your /science (or you might mean /seance))
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To: Salman

58 posted on 02/23/2022 9:12:03 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger

Worst President, Ever!


59 posted on 02/23/2022 9:13:10 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Retain Mike

Since you plan on moving anyway, I suggest Florida for their Bright Futures college scholarships. If your children earn decent grades and test scores, your children can get college tuition covered at their Public colleges. Both are huge improvements to the political climate of Oregon.


60 posted on 02/23/2022 9:15:27 AM PST by Betty Jane
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