Like the Affirmative Action Bake Sales, I can see the students involved in this completely missing the point.
They worked hard for that good GPA. I see that. I understand that they wouldn't want points taken from their good GPA and handed to those that don't work as hard.
I work hard for my paychecks, and I resent every dollar taken from my family to be given to those who don't work. I hate--hate--that such a huge part of the federal budget (54%) goes toward things outside the Constitutional responsibilities of the federal government.
I would be willing to bet that most of the students approached about redistributing GPA points to the less fortunate won't see the parallels.
3 minutes ago
I'm guessing irony isn't taught in high school anymore.
ReplyDeleteNope. It's actually bad enough that my early Brit Lit teacher nearly started crying when nobody in his class besides me got "A Modest Proposal."
DeleteAnd that was about thirteen years ago. It's much worse, now. That whole whine about "teaching to the test?" Yeah, they don't actually teach up to standards tested, which would ensure the students knew the material well enough to do well. No, they teach strategies--turning multiple choice tests into multiple guess.
Definitely home schooling my children.
I still remember (mumble) years ago in High School, being the only one laughing at Hamlet's puns. Everyone in English class was glaring at me (This is Shakespeare, that means it's serious!) Until the teacher mentioned that this actually was an instance of humor in the play.
ReplyDeleteWhat dost thou read, m'lord?
Words, words, words, words.
"My head in your lap-you thought I spoke of country matters."
DeleteI love Juliette's nurse, and all of the filthy jokes she made. Another strange injection of humor into a "serious Shakespeare play" was the Porter's scene in MacBeth--most of both classes I read that in were jarred too badly to find the humor in it. But yeah, Hamlet's puns were good.
DeleteBe interested to see which things you included in "constitutional" I'm not sure I see ANY. Well OK, maybe national defense (not foreign aid), vetrans pensions (not government employee's), highways (as they were actually established as part of national defense, and Education. Hard to break out the actual Defense spending from the boondoggles and foreign aid. I don't think the constitution includes education or transportation, or pensions for that matter. - Doesn't leave all that much.
ReplyDeleteSocial Sec should be outside the budget (and used to be).
The rest of it looks like entitlements
You make a very good point. I was trying to be a little more optimistic--hurts my migraine less, weirdly enough
DeleteI thought of a similar analogy last night after working in my garden. Say you have a vegetable garden. You go out and work there every day - weeding, watering, removing pests, waiting for when your tomatoes (or whatever) are ready.
ReplyDeleteThen, some people jump the fence into your yard and take a bunch of your tomatoes. Because you have all this fresh produce and they don't, and the wealth should be spread around. How do you feel about that? After all your work, people who didn't work for that food got it?
(I might use that one on some of my more left-leaning friends who garden).
I mean, I'm happy to share extra tomatoes - like offering charity - but I'd really be irked by someone who had neither sown nor toiled insisting he had a right to some of the fruits of my labor.
Let me know if it works, or if cognitive dissonance protects their ideology about the redistribution of wealth.
ReplyDelete