Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Sowell: Busybody Politics
Creators Syndicate ^ | August 6, 2013 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 08/05/2013 9:26:13 AM PDT by jazusamo

It is hard to read a newspaper, or watch a television newscast, without encountering someone who has come up with a new "solution" to society's "problems." Sometimes it seems as if there are more solutions than there are problems. On closer scrutiny, it turns out that many of today's problems are a result of yesterday's solutions.

San Francisco and New York are both plagued with large "homeless" populations today, largely as a result of previous housing "reforms" that made housing more expensive, and severely limited how much housing, and of what kind, could be built.

The solution? Spend more of the taxpayers' money making homelessness a viable lifestyle for more people.

Education is a field with endless reforms, creating endless problems, requiring endless solutions. One of the invincible fallacies among educators is that all sorts of children can be educated in the same classroom. Not just children of different races, but children of different abilities, languages, and values.

Isn't it nice to think so? I suspect that even most conservatives would prefer to live in the kind of world conjured up in the liberals' imagination, rather than in the kind of world we are in fact stuck with.

The result is that many very bright children are bored to the point of becoming behavior problems, when the school work is slowed to a pace within the range of students who are slower learners.

By federal law, even children with severe mental or emotional problems must be "mainstreamed" into classes for other students — often in disregard of how much this disrupts these classes and sacrifices the education of the other children.

(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: sowell; thomassowell
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-29 last
To: jazusamo

Indeed.


21 posted on 08/05/2013 7:06:25 PM PDT by TheOldLady
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo
The result is that many very bright children are bored to the point of becoming behavior problems, when the school work is slowed to a pace within the range of students who are slower learners.

I was a gifted child at a time before gifted children programs existed. (At least, none existed where we lived.) The teachers would explain the material. Then they would sit me down with some of the slower students to explain it to them in terms they could understand. I was also sent to tutor other classes; in sixth grade, I spent at least an hour a day tutoring kindergartners. Many of my classes had extra credit independent learning material, which I went through pretty quickly.

There *are* ways to engage the brighter students, even when students of different abilities are stuck into the same class. What my teachers did with me can be done by any teacher.

22 posted on 08/06/2013 4:40:25 AM PDT by exDemMom (Now that I've finally accepted that I'm living a bad hair life, I'm more at peace with the world.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: posterchild
How much of ‘homelessness’ is the result of expensive housing vs drug addiction, mental illness, lifestyle choice, etc?

Quite a bit of it, actually. Mentally ill people cannot be locked up indefinitely (thanks, ACLU!) unless they have actually committed a crime. Without committing a crime, they end up on the streets, like stray dogs, unable to take care of themselves. The drug addicts are in the same situation, although I have less sympathy for them than for the mentally ill. They chose to try the drugs that they became addicted to, while mentally ill people didn't choose to become mentally ill.

23 posted on 08/06/2013 4:44:07 AM PDT by exDemMom (Now that I've finally accepted that I'm living a bad hair life, I'm more at peace with the world.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo
The result is that many very bright children are bored to the point of becoming behavior problems, when the school work is slowed to a pace within the range of students who are slower learners.

My youngest was in that trap, so was his Dad 40 years earlier. Both of them ended up dropping out of high school due to pure boredom. Both scored in the 95% on the SAT's. Ran for the school board on this platform, lost, just too mean!

24 posted on 08/06/2013 7:14:34 AM PDT by thirst4truth (www.Believer.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Maceman

“Jimmy Carter first fixed the nation’s public school system by establishing a cabinet-level Department of Education in 1979.”

Why is there no popular movement dedicated to the abolition of the Department of Education?


25 posted on 08/06/2013 11:28:00 AM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: dsc
Why is there no popular movement dedicated to the abolition of the Department of Education?

Beats me. I think it should be done urgently.

26 posted on 08/06/2013 1:37:01 PM PDT by Maceman (Just say "NO" to tyranny.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: dsc

That used to be a part of the Republican agenda, along with de-funding taxpayer-funded leftist public radio, the arts, etc. I haven’t heard even a whisper in app the last two decades about any of these things. It’s as if they finally just conceded to all this, and it all became a given that the taxpayers are required to fund the left’s agenda and outlets.


27 posted on 08/07/2013 9:03:57 AM PDT by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo
On closer scrutiny, it turns out that many of today's problems are a result of yesterday's solutions.

Spot on, as always.

28 posted on 08/07/2013 9:42:53 AM PDT by Lizavetta
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Maceman

Nicely done.


29 posted on 08/07/2013 9:44:09 AM PDT by Lizavetta
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-29 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson