Fruit for Thought: the Intersection of Education, Culture, and Performance

The past is a daily occurrence existing the second after it happens. Occasionally, those past moments become history-making events that will forever stay etched on the mind. So much so, can recall - with accuracy and great detail - where you were and what you were doing when it happened. - September 11, 2001 I was two weeks into my third semester at Howard and already I did not care for my early Tuesday morning (11am) Accounting class. I did most of my studying and videogaming during the wee hours of the morning. So naturally I was a night owl who hated being awakened for anything less than an emergence. When my roommate barged in, woke me up and turned on the TV, I knew something was wrong. - August 29, 2005 My second day on the job as an Assistant Japanese English Teacher. The fourteen-hour time difference made it challenging to keep up with family, friends and the news. As I did every morning before classes, I browsed the top news sites so I could stay in the loop from 7,000-plus mi...

ESPN took my idea. Yeah, I said it: the subsidiary of Disney STOLE MY HEADLINE!!! Well, not really. My gears were turning the moment Y.E. Yang won the PGA Championship . I had planned on using Yang’s name in a clever play on words. I guess I was not the only one with that idea. Darn you ESPN, you and your team of ingenious sports writers. I, along with most golf followers, pretty much counted everyone else out. The numbers – as complied by ESPN – are never wrong: 5 – the number of PGA Championship wins Tiger will have after Sunday (tying him with Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagan). 15 – the number of career majors Tiger will have collected after Sunday (will be three behind Nicklaus) & the number of wins Tiger will have when he is leading after the first three rounds. 48 – the number of win Tiger will have (out of 51 tries) when he is at least tied for the lead after 54 holes. 1 – the number of losses Tiger will maintain when leading by two strokes or more in any tournament (36-1 reco...

From Falcons to Eagles, Michael Vick is flying high again . The only thing better than one scrambling QB is two scrambling QBs. I find it very interesting how Vick’s comeback has been foreshadowed for weeks. 8/4: Vick practices for the first time with the Landstown High School Eagles. 8/9: Vick’s mentor, Tony Dungy, said: "He's talked to a lot of people, and I don't know why I say this, but I think something will happen this week. All you need is that one team. That is our prayer -- that he finds that one team and that he finds the best opportunity to make it work." Source: NBC Sports 8/11: When Chris Mortensen asked Philadelphia Eagles Coach Andy Reid if would consider Vick, Reid said that he believes that Vick deserves another chance, but he is happy with his quarterback situation. The Eagles’ front office kept their plot under wraps until they felt the time was right: their first preseason game against the Patriots. “PETA and millions of decent football fans arou...

For all the 47 million (and counting) Latinos in America, this has been a historic week and one would be ignorant not to acknowledge the 17% (and growing) majority minority pride. Please hold all applause until I finish announcing all the awards. First, Sonia Sotomayor becomes the first Latino Supreme Court Justice . Though her opposition  is concerned with “her statements and rulings on hot-button issues such as gun control, affirmative action and property rights” and think she is “intent on reinterpreting the law to conform with her own liberal political beliefs,” her summa cum laude from Princeton, editor of the Yale Law Journal and managing editor of the Yale Studies in World while at Yale Law School, 11 years on the Court of Appeals (Second Circuit) and several other impressive lifetime accomplishments make those 31 naysayers feel pretty intellectually and professionally inferior. Second, George Lopez, “one man, no water, no towel, no stool, one kidney sold out the AT&T Cent...