« LISTA EVENT ROCKS 30 ROC | GED Programs | WHITE HOUSE SPECIAL COMMISSION EVENT AT THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES »
October 16, 2010
EL QUIJOTE DEL GED AND THE WHITE HOUSE SPECIAL COMMISSION CONFERENCE
By Profesor Martin Danenberg
"El Quijote del GED"
The GED needed a federal stimulus package and still does. The GED has to be taken away from states' rights, the Spanish and French GED should be given in every testing center in the United States and its territories, and the GED should be made free to everyone in the nation and funded to the maximum to allow anyone to take the test.
Forty million Americans do not have a high school diploma or GED and parent involvement in the schools must focus on the GED problem among parents and community members (including men and women returning from prison and those men and women in prison, women who are victims of domestic violence and other problems, students who are bullied and cyber bullied, ESL students who cannot complete the English language requirements to earn a high school diploma, immigrants (millions of them), youth who were adversely affected by their parents who have served in two wars, gang members who commit violence and murders, youth with depression and other mental illnesses, and much, much more.
I recently proposed an initiative in New York State that the State Education Department rejected for the moment. Seventeen and eighteen year olds around the country (and in New York) need to know their GED rights, especially the part about being discharged for one year and attaining seventeen or eighteen years of age. Doubling the number of GED diplomas in this group would improve the workforce for decades to come. The response from the Senior Deputy Commissioner was not worth the price of the paper it was written on. Latino youth fall behind because of the decisions made by people who do not know how to empower them, even after they drop out of school. The entire family suffers, as well as the community.
Committee this year was that all GED testing centers must give the GED test in Spanish (as well as French). As Hispanics move around a state (any state) they will run into the problem where administrators only test in English. This hurts the Latino community, family, workforce, and nation. Some states continue to refuse to test in Spanish, taking advantage of the testing in English, but denying Hispanic tax payers their right to test in Spanish.
I am the number one person helping the most powerful woman in parent involvement in the New York City schools. I told Queen Makkada that the tests in New York City were too easy and that has been confirmed. The movie "Waiting for Superman" is out doing its own kind of damage, especially since it did not take into account how the GED affects parent involvement in the schools and improving the workforce among minorities.
The movie and an article that appeared in the UFT newspaper on October 14 failed point out that when I started studying to be a teacher in the 1960's the books and minds of administrators taught that there was an essentially a "master-slave" relationship between administrators and teachers. By removing tenure and other hard fought gains, we will be returning to that same "master-slave" in the post civil rights era. The article tells about the rights of teachers in the "Green Dot" charter school in the Bronx and that teachers have fought for teachers rights for decades. The Green Dot-UFT charter school and it among the twenty percent of charter schools that are succeeding. All of its students have passed the New York State's math and science exams, and 97 percent will graduate within four year years.
We now know that New York City's schools have been failing for the last two years. I did not believe it was doing well and then the truth came out. President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan believed it and put the word out about the "miracle" in New York City under Mayor Bloomberg. Geoffrey Canada's work has influenced presidential decisions. It is time to step back and examine the whole truth. I read the Geoffrey Canada story and I know exactly where he went wrong and how he ended up succeeding.
The statics show in New York City that District Schools with an A and B rating out performed charter schools in progress reports(A 26% to 20% and B 35% to 28%). District Schools clearly taught greater numbers of students receiving free lunch and ESL students, with a huge difference in ESL learners.
With all the hot air surrounding education and lack of action from our leaders, "El Quijote del GED" wants everyone to know that the Department of State must help Latin America much more with its education. A half million more people in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Central and South America could earn a GED in Spanish each year, helping to build a middle class there and promoting democracy through education. I spent three days this year at the Organization of American States Haitian-Diaspora Forum advocating for the French GED for Haiti in its post earthquake period (I started my advocacy more than four years before the earthquake with my article Yele Haiti) and the translation of the GED into Creole to help most of the Haitian people. Without this important diplomatic initiative, the United States can only make slight gains in diplomacy at best.
My testimony in Albany was recently seen by people on C-SPAN and my Haitian Diaspora video on You Tube (mygedhotline) was placed on AOL News Haitian Diaspora Videos. My new effort to organize legends of baseball, professionals in Major League Baseball , minor league, college and high school players, little leaguers and their parents in a conference in San Pedro de Macorís in the Dominican Republic has already made news on diarionoticia.com, colosodemacoris.com, puntualizando.com, sosuadigital.com, and it is on ahorre.com and 1-800-beisbol in the United States. People close to President Leonel Fernández know about the conference that I want to do. My visit to Puerto Rico last week was very productive and I hope to influence all of Puerto Rico soon. It is time for Americans and the United States government to do the right thing, the best thing for its people. New resources are on the way to help youth who drop out of school to play baseball, youth who will never play in MLB.
"El Quijote del GED" hopes to publish a book soon that will help all Hispanics accelerate in their acquisition of English, cutting down on the dropout rate and improving the workforce.
MARTIN N. DANENBERG
7 BLAZER DRIVE
ISLANDIA, NEW YORK 11749
631-348-1341
martin@mygedhotline.com
New:
www.mygedhotline.com
www.geocities.com/gedhotline
www.ahorre.com/ged
www.ahorre.com
www.aspira.org
Profesor Martin Danenberg October 16, 2010 10:24 AM