On 1/29/2011 2:13 PM, Richard Moreau wrote:
I'm not sure about your other statements but you are correct that PA
children do not need to be enrolled until age 8, but if they are
enrolled at a younger age they must remain enrolled, well, until 16
when they can withdraw (with parental consent?)
We thought of this as the Amish rule in central PA. Amish kids are
still expected to follow this rule or they will be shunned.
When school became compulsory, farm families depended on the kids
labor. Like summer vacation, these policies were crafted around a much
more agrarian society during the latter 19th century. The family would
lose the labor around age 18 when the kids got married.
Ricky, as a long term volunteer, and a former site coordinator with the
mayor's commission on literacy, I applaud your call to volunteerism.
However, our leaders' calls to volunteerism are being crafted to help
eviscerate important systems which require professionals.
Remember when the government wanted to start sending mental health and
addiction treatment money to churches? Our leaders were simultaneously
attempting to destroy the tiny and insufficient mental health system
staffed by professionals. They've largely succeeded.
Not you, but our leaders try to stifle citizen demands for good schools
and mental health systems by substituting a call for volunteerism with
slick marketing campaigns. Something like this, "if you loud mouths
care about kids, you will volunteer to help a kid at your church." (If
you study civic associations, you will recognize the same tactic to
justify secrecy and exclusion of dissenters.)
As a system, to impact the dropout rate and college admission, this will
be a complete failure, while the population remains distracted from the
real issues and real solutions. (Personal voluntary solutions to
climate change are being abused similarly.)
Public schools need good professional guidance counselors and
psychologists, who can work collaboratively with teachers. Teachers
need to be allowed time for such professional interdisciplinary
collaboration as well as time to work with master teachers and to
conduct their own research projects. This would be a great investment
for society, but it does require funding. Our corporations do not want
a well educated citizenry, and they believe poor and middle class
families do not deserve quality educations only technical educations.
Our political leaders need to be forced to accept the priorities of the
people and stop funneling all of our resources to corporate welfare,
(see the last two issues of the UCReview for some examples of our
leaders service to corporate policy.)
They are abusing people's ingenuous goodwill and offering these
marketing campaigns as solutions, while quietly increasing the attacks
against our vital institutions. People should volunteer when they can
and understand the limitations. But it is our civic duty to take back
our government and priorities for society. People feel helpless against
our corporate driven government and policies, and they are then urged to
volunteer to avoid complete helplessness not actually solve problems.
All the best,
Glenn
PS: Many middle class people have no idea how bad the graduation rate is
in poor districts around the country. It's not a Philly problem but a
national crisis that impacts crime, drug abuse, low productivity, low
happiness, etc. There is a direct correlation between underfunded
districts, poverty, and the abysmal graduation rates. Thanks for
raising the issue. They also do not know the functioning level of
literacy is extremely low in many poor communities even among HS grads.
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