groups

We somehow have created an upside down world to live in. Teachers develop lesson plans to assist the success of the lowest student (one or two in a class) neglecting the other 28 average students in the class. This is mandated by state law.

My grandkids attend a public school that has a rule that if your child elects to have a birthday party outside of school and is going to invite a classmate, they must invite all of the same gender classmates.

As a society we place more value on animals then people. If a single lady has seven cats in her house, she ends up on the 6:00news with police raiding the house, a warrent for her arrrest, and it causes an uproar about abuse. Yet a single mom with seven children living in a two bedroom apartment simply gets some $$$$ for her children that encourages her to go have another.

In this man's opinion we need, as Rubi stated, to get rid of these bleeding hearts who favor the minority and neglect the majority. No, I'm not talking color, I'm talking about the fact that we neglect the victims and off our assistance to the criminal. We neglect the average student to help the person who is not capable of achieving.

Life is unfair even if you play by the rules. But if you break the rules you should not be rewarded.

If people cannot be "cured" or "rehabilitated" then what are we to do with them? That means that if we imprison them and let them out at the end of their sentence, they WILL offend again, not MIGHT offend again. How do we protect "us?" Prison has three possible roles, only one of which really works -- (1) to keep offenders away from the rest of us, (2) to punish people for offending and thereby deterring them and others from offending, and (3) rehabilitation.

Most people have come to realize that #3 requires more than just incarceration, it would require programs and education and counseling. Most people also agree that #3 doesn't work for most offenders.

#2 has a small effect on the person who is punished, and almost no effect on others. What this means is that punishing someone can have a deterrent effect on the person being punished and less of an effect on potential offenders - think of a classroom where little Johnny acts out and is punished with detention after school. Little Johnny might not act out again for fear of being punished, but the other kids (most of them) won't be deterred from acting out solely because little Johnny got punished. If the punishment were carried out in front of the other kids, then it might have more of a deterrent effect, but the theory is that if you punish a person in front others, in a sense you're also punishing the other person by making them witness the punishment - people feel empathy for others who are being punish, sometimes. So, if we imprisoned people in long cages lining our streets and we could see how bad they have it in prison, it might stop some of us from committing offenses, but when we wisk the convicts off to parts unknown, then the rest of us don't think about it much -- out of sight, out of mind.

#1 is the only role for prisons that actually works -- a person imprisoned can't harm us while he's in there, most of the time.

So, what do we do?

Answer - fix the problem before people become offenders, it's the only solution that can work.

By the way, I would rather spend billions of dollars trying to fix this problem than the healthcare "problem." This is the #1 social problem we have -- and it's worse here than in most industrialized countries, I don't know why that is, but it's a fact.

People need to work for a living, to start with. No more handouts. A person needs, on several levels, to learn self-worth through accomplishment, not handouts.

Children need to compete in sports and get trophies when they win, not when they "participate."

Children need to be rewarded for exemplary schoolwork, not placed in advanced programs because of their racial makeup.

Children who need help must get help, but a child with special needs can't be taught that he should get everything for free because he's ADHD or whatever.

There will always be children who must get special attention -- and they should get every bit of it. Society must take care of those who need help. We need to raise the bar, however.

I can tell you as a Mom with a child with ADHD (severe) that nothing was ever handed to her. Her brain does not work the same way that other kids' do and its the same for kids with other neurological disorders. (manic depressives, oppositional/defiant, obsessive/compulsive - just to name a few) I think they need to make schools just for ADHD/etc kids. They don't qualify to be "special ed" but mainstreaming them causes so much frustration that these are the kids that get in trouble the most and become criminals. It is frustrating to watch your child get no help even though they have the same rights to a good education as the rest of the children. My daughters HS made no special adjustments in ciriculum or class size or one on one availabilty for her or any other student. Legally they have to send them through the normal tests for learning disabilities, and if they are not LD, they go to classes with the rest of the kids, unable to keep up at the same pace- which lowers their self esteem and leads them into problematic behavior. Most of the time its for attention (of ANY kind) but most of the time its because they are learning what it's like to fail in almost everything they do. Kids like this could be GREAT at sports but are not allowed to play because of their poor grades - yet another kick in the teeth. I think they don't have special (public) schools because not only would you have to have a teaching degree, but also a degree in Psychology to teach there. The cost of running a school as this would be higher due to the educational aides and the teachers pay. But then again - if the community wants their young people to have a good life and not have a lot of criminals in their streets, then they would have to fork out in taxes. I am sure THAT would go over well. The same people that holler that these kids are getting special treatment would be hollering if they had to help pay to have them shipped elsewhere. After all - they aren't THEIR kids. But not many parents with children with disorders are rich enough to pay for a special school or private instruction. These kids start costing you from day one and it doesn't ever get any cheaper! Psychologists and Shrinks and medication IF you can afford it. Throw in legal fees if they do get in trouble, and wow. I am happy that my child is 18 and on her own but she will always struggle and may or may not be able to make it in this world. I have another child who was straight A and honor roll in HS and College. Go figure.

As I said, I'd rather pay billions to help those kids than anything else right now. We need to fix this problem. Maybe this is what happened to some of those ancient cultures that thrived and then all of a sudden ended or disappeared. It's like an implosion, the society will collapse upon itself if something isn't done.

I'm with Mike on helping the kids. Where is all the Lottery money that's supposed to go into the schools? THey never could account for it when I lived in Mi.
As for the sex offenders...they need to go to the Tent City prison down in Maricopa , Arizona.Joe Araipao houses them and feeds them for a heck of a lot less than the country club prisons.It's no worse than what our GI's live in and never complain in Iraq. WHy should these offenders get tv, college education, a gym, etc, etc. THe child they molested isn't getting all that. All they get is a lifetime of scars, emotional and sometimes physical.
Let them live in sweltering heat in the desert.Let them live out their life there, because I don't know if a sexual predator/offender can be cured. I'm not talking of the guy who got caught urinating in public, but the ones who've molested children.
I'd personally donate religiously for a bus to send all the sexual offenders to a tent camp in some sweltering miserable hellhole.

I know a lot of kids back in my HS days that could have had a disorder and were labeled a "problem child". If they knew then what we know now, half these kids would have been on medication and/or in counseling and many, many of them wouldn't be in jail today for commiting crimes out of frustration and desperation. And the anger and rage it causes in some kids, to feel differently and not understand it, on TOP of the raging horomones and the mood swings that is caused by puberty, throw in the peer pressure and maybe some bullying....wait am I talking Columbine here?

I am glad they have those sexual offenders websites. We have several living in our area and I am sure any one of you do too. It's apalling to think how many there actually are, all over this state/country/world. I got a letter from an anonymous neighbor this year telling me of one a few blocks from my house and I am sure that same letter was in all the maiboxes in our area. Just another type of Neighborhood Watch that I am grateful for, now that we live in the city! (I did check it out for accuracy)

I know what you mean, when I was a kid there were "hyperactive" kids, "lazy" kids, "dumb" kids, "slow" kids, etc. etc. Lots of them got in trouble, but there was no pity for them, no excuses made for them, no special dispensation or classes or counseling or (legal) drugs. Some of them ended up in trouble and jail or drug addicts or dead at an early age, but lots of them also found their niche in life - not everyone needs to graduate from high school or go to college or become a bank president or doctor. Some kids can aspire to be auto mechanics, musicians, maintenance workers, carpenters, or a whole host of other very admirable professions. The problem today seems to be (1) we identify these special needs kids at an early age, and then (2) try to mainstream them and get them to achieve like a "normal" kid. This doesn't always work. Can't we just realize that certain institutions (i.e. school) are just not the right place for some people and if we continue to force the square peg into the round hole all we're doing is causing more problems?

As for the offenders in your area -- I have mixed feeling about it. In Florida (I don't know how it's done in Wisconsin, but I might just look it up to find out) a sex offender could be some guy who had a girlfriend who was too young, or it could be a female teacher who had sex with a 15 year old boy who probably bragged about it, or it could be a child rapist, they all register and are identified on the web site. Not all of these people are dangerous, in my opinion, but they are ostracized for life and where the scarlet letter forever. In some areas, Miami comes to mind, there are so many registered sex offenders and so many schools and bus stops and other places that they can't live near, that there are no places for them to live so they've taken up residence under freeway overpasses, etc. Here I think the solution would be to have only the true child molesters register, but nobody asked me!

I guess this will say a lot about me but this is the way I see it from my experiences with children, prisons and teen age girls school (prison)

Your child will remember you more for your presence than your presents.

An undisciplined child will become like a shoe.....a loafer or a sneaker.

The best thing to spend on children is your time.

Good examples have twice the value of good advice.

And....."It is easier to build a child than to repair an adult."

Dang Jerry..... those are some great trueisms....