Greek Letters Day Celebration

    On Friday Jan.22, 1999, the Hellenic American Educators Association(HAEA/UFT) held its annual celebration of Greek Letters.The event was co-sponsored by the Hellenic Link, Inc. Invited speaker for the occasion was Dr. Constantine Papadakis, President of Drexel University, Philadelphia. Following is a summary of Dr. Papadakis’address obtained through the courtesy of HAEA.

    Dr. Papadakis stated that as Greece’s contributions to world knowledge were indisputable, he would instead focus on the challenges facing both K-12 and higher education.He observed that although our students do not work as hard as students in other countries in mathematics and science, they are better at analysis. However, the average Japanese fifth grader spends 890 classroom hours, while the average American fifth grader spends 750 classroom hours.The Japanese high school student devotes 59 hours to studying and the American high school student devotes 38 hours to studying. Of the fifty million American students attending school, one million drop out every year and society’s cost over an average seventy-five year lifetime, in terms of lost wages and taxes, is a staggering 240 billion dollars every year, which is equal to America’s annual national deficit. Dr.Papadakis remarked that one dollar spent on education pays back as much as five dollars in savings to our society. An average school district spends seven thousand dollars, and the average university costs double that figure for tuition, while it costs society thirty-five thousand dollars to keep a prisoner behind bars. Prison population in the last ten years has doubled to 1.5 million and while local districts spend 2.5 billion on higher education, state governments are spending 2.6 billion dollars for prison construction. The earning power of education was dramatically shown when Dr. Papadakis compared the average family incomes by levels of education. The high school dropout will earn $28,000; the high school graduate will earn $41,000;the college graduate will earn $73,000, and the professional with advanced education will earn $123,000. Dr. Papadakis felt that educators can effect awareness and change in the body politic so that recent priorities such as building more prisons must be questioned when compared with the enormous financial blessings that education can offer. Two new students at Drexel University help create one new job in Philadelphia, and Drexel University is growing by one thousand full time undergraduate students, and this growth is expected to continue for the next three years. Although Dr. Papadakis did not discount the heavy financial burden of parents in meeting the cost of higher education, he noted that $70 per day provides a Drexel University student with a high rise dorm room, three meals, counseling, gyms, and five academic courses. Additionally, private institutions of higher learning not only provide some taxpayer relief in meeting the state’s financial obligations to funding state universities and colleges, but also contribute to the economy of the particular city or state in which they operate.

Another challenge we face as educators is the need to successfully educate the nation’s minorities. For instance, in 1970, 15 workers supported one retiree, but by the year2005, only 3.5 workers will support one retiree. One third of those 3.5 workers will be minorities, and as educators, it is imperative that we work together to ensure that minority students receive the education which will make them productive members of the society.