KID'S VIEW OF THE RED AND BLUE

Out of the mouth of children, as they say, comes some heartbreaking truths. This time it was high school students. But never mind, the concept holds. Also, apparently all American Government classes are not taught by socialist leaning teachers.

There was a class of forty students. The students were broken down into four groups of ten. Each group was to have a few days to work on a "special" project and not to consult with anyone in any other group until the results were presented in class.

What the four groups did not know is that each group was provided the same New York Times election results map dated 11/9/00. Their task, then, was to look up as much information (other than the same election results already indicated) as possible about the different colored areas and attempt to define why the presidential vote turned out as it did.

When I first looked at the map, I thought that should be rather easy -- in generalities, anyway. However the kids went a lot more in depth, and some got rather specific on a few items.

The map is somewhat like the famous USA Today red/blue map. Areas for Bush are colored red. The few counties that went for Gore are colored blue.

Most noticed by the students was that the "blue" areas had the most environmental problems. Many blue areas included large metropolitan areas. And nearly half of the nation's serious crime was reported to be in the blue areas -- which stands to reason if they have the largest congestion. Single parent families are about three times greater in the blue areas than the red.

But, looking deeper one sees some interesting statistics that do not necessarily follow the increase in crime. Most school districts in the blue areas spend a great deal more per student than school districts in the red areas. Yet, overall, the scholastic abilities of the average students in the blue areas are not as good as those attending school in the red. Also, some blue areas have an average or above average per capita income. There were, however, a number of interesting exceptions in both areas.

Two of the groups attempted to show that the city and county governments in the blue areas tended to be very liberal. We would guess that anyway, of course. But, that case was not proven conclusively.

So, where are we going with this? Nowhere, actually. Because it is just common sense that schools in liberal areas do not teach as well as schools in conservative areas. One reason is that liberal teachers tend to be too permissive and undisciplined classrooms are not conducive to learning.[1] Permissive cultures lead to teen pregnancies, large school drop-out rates and hence, more crime.

Conversely, most conservative communities will not allow that vicious circle to get started. In low crime areas, police do not have much to do and so can pay close attention to misbehavior by teens that would be overlooked in busy urban areas. Teachers usually keep strict discipline in the classroom. And children go home to a family atmosphere that will insure they get their homework done. Parents and police both tend to work to insure kids are at home by a reasonable hour.

Many of these differences are very obvious, too.In Detroit, kids feel free to backtalk anyone, often with a very nasty choice of words. It's not uncommon to see nine or ten year old kids running the streets well after midnight. And, 60% of the children born are to unwed mothers. I have personally been in two homes with five generations of women and children on welfare -- homes where no adult male ever lived.

In a rather rural "red" area, none of that is [usually] evident. The kids who are not doing well in school are helped. There are some people on welfare, but it is often obvious that they need to be. Kids out too late get stopped by police. All crime and/or disturbances are investigated. Everything may not need to go to court, but it gets "handled" somehow, nonetheless. Transients are watched. Not hassled, just watched. And, more recently, there is even an "officer friendly" outside greeting the kids at the schools as they arrive and leave school via school busses.

So it's no surprise that life is more pleasant in the "red" areas of the country. Conservative people tend to be rather self-sufficient. They usually do not like government interference in much of anything. And, in a nutshell, that is exactly why Bush won the election. Most Americans hoped Dubya would tend to make government back off and leave us alone. We know for sure that Gore would do just the opposite -- and work to make the whole of the country like the blue zones.

I have no idea if the teacher was surprised and impressed by those lesson results. But I sure was. Those high school kids did quite a lot of very good research, the quality of which would have been at the university master's degree level just a few years ago. And, not only did they get it right, they realized the significance of what they found with no adult prompting.

There is another reason crime is low in the blue areas. In towns and small cities, there is less anonymity -- lots of people around town know you, and if you do something wrong,it gets back to your folks and friends. In the city, people are more unbridled in their actions, because a much smaller fraction of the population would recognize you.

and if you do something wrong,it gets back to your folks and friends.

Usually before you get home.

And the most onerous gun control laws on the books....Idiots.

5.56mm

And yet, it's said that some red states have higher divorce and abortion rates than some rather liberal blue states. We are one country and we can't separate the nation into troubled and problem-free zones.

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