1st class

Last night was our first class with Dr. Robert Manley at Dowling College. I arrived to the class early and was able to catch up with my colleagues that I haven't seen in a few weeks. After enjoying our hellos and discussing Malasia's expected baby, we introduced ourselves to Dr. M. The most startling news, other than Malasia, was Derricks' decision to possibly leave the course load temporarily for searching being a pastor at a church in his area. The class followed with a brief overview of some of the statistics from prior classes, especially the idea of t-test and how we can generate correlations and determine if statistics are significant, as we learned from good ol' Dr. Perry.
One of the most interesting conversations we spoke about last night was when we went around the classroom and shared our hopes of focus for the dissertation study. Of course when we got to Derrick we had a lengthy conversation as we always do in our classes about the white/black gap...and why it exists. I made a point about the role of the home and family prior to any education begins...but I poorly stated my thoughts and it was misinterpreted. I feel strongly we must always educate every child, but we must recognize how families raise children simultaneously. Although that may not be something we can ever influence, it has to be considered as a piece of the puzzle, especially by the public, or should I say non-educators, that looks solely to the DATA for measures of success. I also admired the quote shared by Dr. M with us from Aristotle... "using the same standard for everybody, may be the most unfair thing we can do."