Should No One Really Be Left Behind

[JCOOK]

I hear a lot of rhetoric about no child should be left behind or no person should be left behind......Excuse me but we live in a country where you work for what you get or you get left behind. Iam sick of the im' entitled to this or im' entitled to that. You are guranteed the right to life liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness.Not guarranteed happiness

[BigBadBrian]

Originally posted by JCOOK
I hear a lot of rhetoric about no child should be left behind or no person should be left behind......Excuse me but we live in a country where you work for what you get or you get left behind. Iam sick of the im' entitled to this or im' entitled to that. You are guranteed the right to life liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness.Not guarranteed happiness


Exactly. Every kid in school DESERVES an A.

[knuckleboner]

BBB's right, we do them a disservice by rewarding everybody.

but in terms of leaving kids behind (not the act, that's a whole other story, and i've a whole other list of complaints about it:D) but just in general, the problem is that kids can't choose.

parents can be lazy, or not improve themselves. i'm much more willing to tie aid to adults to various strings and requirements they have to do.

but the kids can't choose their parents. they can't decide to go to a better elementary school, or start buying nutricious breakfasts, etc.

i understand the practicality of not being able to help every kid. that's reality.

but when our goal isn't at least, in theory, to leave no child behind, then we've got to get new goals...

[John Ashcroft]

We are guaranteed equal opportunity in this wonderful, capitalist country of ours, not equal outcome (which is socialism).

I wonder if the parents of these so called "left behind" children would actually shape up if the government tit wasn't always there to bail them out...

[knuckleboner]

Originally posted by John Ashcroft
I wonder if the parents of these so called "left behind" children would actually shape up if the government tit wasn't always there to bail them out...

maybe. hopefully.

it's a tough call, though.


as much as i might want to castigate the parents, i'm not really willing to risk the kids. in this area, i'd rather be overcautious, and accept a certain amount of fraud/abuse as inevitable, then undercautious, and letting a few too many kids fall through the cracks.

tough call. i'm not sure there's any easy answers here.

[John Ashcroft]

How about judging the existing programs on their results rather than intentions?

[knuckleboner]

i'm more than happy to do that.

i wasn't the biggest fan of the republican's 1994 welfare reform.

but i was an even bigger critic of the democrats' refusal to even consider reform of any kind.

the program was definitely not perfect. but rather than look to improve it, the democrats merely said it was good enough, as is.

[John Ashcroft]

And all these years later we realize the above mentioned welfare reform did actually improve the system...