My GED Hotline GED Practice Test

The panel brought up the GED in various ways. Central Islip and Brentwood participated through school personnel and Freeport and Elmont were represented by a trustee and the mayor of the latter. Even guests attending the dinner brought up the GED. Let me focus on the comments of a guest first. Her road to the GED is for Hispanics to learn English and do the English GED instead of the Spanish GED. This type of mentality is only slightly different from the "English only" mentality of certain people, sometimes referred to as "blanquitos" in the community. I was telling some people, including my great friend George Hulse that Hispanics that I consider the wisest did their GED in Spanish (one of them after only three days in this country and others after a month or six months (like our friend Teddy Acevedo). Waiting to learn English in ESL programs and then doing the GED in English sounds to me like a conspiracy made up by racists to hold back the Latino community. The Spanish test for Latinos was made for and by Puerto Rico to help Latinos advance quickly. E palante que vamos por el GED en español. The GED in Spanish really is just the equivalence of the diplomas earned by people in Spanish countries, a diploma that earns people access to jobs and universities in the United States.

I told the panelists and audience that 17 and 18 year olds who have been discharged from school can take the GED before people in class take the GED and earn a diploma. There was big gang news in the paper a day after Somos El Futuro and many of the murders and shootings are taking place in Brentwood. All youth should get their GED at this age, but I also told the people that towns like Central Islip and Brentwood have to be well below the state in GED, just like New York City is about half of the state level. This is largely due to the fact that not enough minorities earn a GED. Minorities should run to take the GED instead of walk or crawl there. I have actually done things that no GED class in English or Spanish could do. I helped 18 people (probably all in Spanish) to take the GED without a classroom teacher to earn their GED. That diploma could be helping those people to get better jobs, even in this tough economy. I would love to see every Hispanic in America pass the GED in Spanish to help themselves and their families have a future (unless some of those Hispanics are actually more fluent in English). I told the people to know the number of GED diplomas in their zip code. I have a feeling that there has been a significant decline in the number of diplomas in Brentwood and Central Islip in the last two years and this comes at a time when the numbers went up in 2008 across our nation.

Oh there was more. Carmen Pinyera told the audience about working with national school board people from North Dakota and their great concerns about educating Latinos. Those people have to guarantee Hispanics the right to earn a GED in Spanish (which does not exist now). Those Latinos plucking and packing chickens cannot get access to the same good jobs Latinos can get with their Spanish GED. In other words there is less hope for Latinos in North Dakota unless the educators there produce a miracle for the children of those adults. Carmen has the voice and the contacts there to produce a change or maybe we can ask President Barack Obama to intervene as the advocate of hope.

Oh there is much more. Each student being discharged from high school needs an exit interview. That could be done in person or even by mail or computer. We want to bring most of the 1.2 million dropouts back into school. Don't we? The exit interview is something that I have been recommending for about eight years, but schools are deaf. I want to do educational conferences in Patchogue-Medford, Central Islip, and Brentwood. I met with Principal Manny Sanzone last year and I fear, now that he has been transferred from the high school to the middle school that I will not accomplish anything. So please join with me and getting these conferences on the map.

Oh there is more. I learned this from someone today. Charter schools actually should be comparing themselves to other charter schools. The public schools in Hempstead have gang problems and other major things that hold the schools back. Short of opening a charter school for the gang members and dealing with other major problems, what kind of educational gains do people realistically expect. Schools in better communities deal with other problems like helping the smartest youth in America. If North Dakota is having major problems for the first time because the Hispanic students are hard to figure out, will a charter school be the answer (segregating Hispanics in a charter school). Will some school that has been successful with the same problem in the last forty years please tell North Dakota what solutions are needed. If the charter schools really have that answer, they should provide the needed information. We do this in medicine, don't we? Why not do it in education?

MARTIN N. DANENBERG
7 BLAZER DRIVE
ISLANDIA, NEW YORK 11749
631-348-1341
GEDHOTLINE@AOL.COM
www.ahorre.com/ged
www.geocities.com/gedhotline
www.aspira.org