School and Education

In this past week’s session, my seminar class met with Dr. Leslie Fenwick. Dr. Fenwick is a highly prominent figure in the educational field and is dean to the Education department. To begin the session she gave everyone a quiz about African American statistics in regards to schools and education. After taking the quiz, Dr. Fenwick read us the real results from the Education Testing Services, in which they segregate statistics by race. The results were eye opening, and broadened my outlook on us as African Americans. She made it clear to us, “don’t talk about people of your own race because you are them,” and to, “push against the mischaracterization of our community.”

According to the data, African American males score higher on standardized tests than African American females and other female subgroups. Also 60 percent and 72 percent of Caucasians are addicted to cocaine and powdered cocaine.

Dr. Fenwick, also shared with us chapter 2 from her book entitled, “The Mist of Black Professionalism Inferiority.” What inspired this chapter was the saying that, “you have to be twice as good to get half as far.” The chapter talked about how with the integration of school came the disintegration of black authority in the educational system. Out of the 15,000 superintendants, only three percent are African American. And of the 92,000 principals in the country a mere 11 percent are African American.

One story that put things in retrospect was one about a Dr. Smith who received his Doctorates from New York University. Dr. Smith was fired and replaced by a white male with a Masters degree from a University of Georgia and 3 years of experience, as opposed to Smith’s decades of experience. In another case, a man with a Masters degree and 23 years of experience as teacher and principal was removed from his position.

Overall I thought Dr. Fenwick’s lecture was a valuable lesson.