Population Control

[roscowgo]

nm

<<going to go read books. i do that knee jerk rant rant rant thing way too much

[storysunfolding]

The problem is that as more bad parents have kids those kids go on to be bad parents b/c 1.) they think their parents did a good job with them, 2.) they don't know better.

You run into problems of ego and entitlement.

Even better are the uber defensive parents
Parent-"What do you mean my kid is failing all his subjects? He's a genius!"
teacher-" That may be ma'am but not by any measurable means."
-in this situation a teacher gets fired
Parent- "What do you mean my kid is failing all his subjects? He's a genius!"
teacher-"maybe he had add" subconciously "medicate the damned hulligan, I can at least tolerate him as a zombie"

We are too far off the beaten path to follow common sense and you can't trick people into being better or you face severe reprecussions. Hell schools aren't even about teaching anymore, they are about making it look like you are teaching. Standardization takes away the special means that teachers develop to reach out to those of us that need help.

I almost failed out of my freshman year of high school. I had a teacher take me aside, became my mentor and made a few deals with my other teachers. I managed to get all A's that year and the rest of my days there, go to U.Va. graduate with a high average, get a 41 on my MCATS and after a bit more time off I'm going to med school. I talked to some of my old teachers a year ago (the teacher that helped me died of prostate cancer my senior year in hs) and they told me that what he did for me would violate a whole bunch of newer school guidelines for the teacher/student relationship part of which being no favortism.

Anyone one case to show that had there not been one person in my life I would have probably ended up in the can't have kids pile and now I'm on the road to the "ideal american way" pile

[CNF2002]

I think the real problem here is that you all need to think less like human beings and more like robots.

Seriously though, I sure don't want to end up like China before we finally realize we have to do something about our population growth. Will there be hard decisions to make? Yes, and not everyone is going to like it. But when you're looking at whats best for the human species as a whole, not to mention the planet, what's more important?

What's the point of having kids if they are going to all be poor, starving, and living in a smog?

[anarchy]

What's the point of having kids if they are going to all be poor, starving, and living in a smog?

now you're on to something... maybe if we promote thinking of the consequences before having children, there wouldn't be a need to have a set of rules proposed in the first post...

i'm all for education over regulation...

[CNF2002]

What's the point of having kids if they are going to all be poor, starving, and living in a smog?

now you're on to something... maybe if we promote thinking of the consequences before having children, there wouldn't be a need to have a set of rules proposed in the first post...

i'm all for education over regulation...

Well, here's the problem with the 'education' idea as I see it. Let's say we create a curriculum and a class in high school or junior high to teach kids specifically the problems of having children, overpopulation, responsibilities, birth control options, etc. What schools can afford to fit this class into their schedule? Not the poorer ones. So we end up with more education for the rich, leading to fewer childbirths among the wealthy and well educated (as we have now) and a continuing rate of childbirths among the poor and uneducated.

And those who are poor and uneducated still get government subsidies for having more children. Plus, they are less likely to send their children to school regularly, and less likely to take any interest in their children's education (which in my opinion is absolutely necessary in order for a school-based system to work at all, there needs to be positive reinforcement in the home).

I wonder if our growing poverty class isn't simply because they are having more children than the rest of the population?

[roscowgo]

It's a side issue, but the whole education system needs fixed. And quickly.


8 out of the 10 kids I went to school with had trouble just Reading the watered down pap they fed us. Nevermind an actual Book.

I'm very happy that they can text each other on their phones, omg were were u lst nite. It's a bad path, and we need to get the hell off of it right now.
edumacation system
1. pay the frickin teachers.
2. hire Good teachers.
3. test the freakin teachers to see if they understand which way is up.
4. don't hire idiots who want to hump their 15 year old students.
5. see #4.
6. Hire More teachers. take some of that 1000$ toilet seat money and build a school closer than 3 hours from your kid.
Competent, Caring, Tough teachers are good things.
ana, yuppie, powermongers are bad things.

oh #7. Get this politically correct, no dodgeball, no one left behind, "poo poo" out of our faces.

society changes
1. Your kid is special to You, and a few other people. not everyone. They are not status symbols, or a chance for you to re-live your childhood. Leave em alone for a few minutes.
2. Adults: quit being mentally challenged. you're grown up now. time to quit acting like 3 year olds with a shiny new toy. Grow a pair and take a look at how you do things. Should adults act like this?
3. You yourself are special to a few people. not everyone. see #2
4. Raise your children. School is not there to be a parent. Neither is the computer, the xbox, the ps3, or the phone. I understand that these days both parents have to work. or one parent has to work 3 jobs. totally different rant there.
5. Boot your kid out of the house in the summer. billions of us played in the sun, all day long during the summer. they arent vampires. they won't burst into flames. If you have to roll the kid down the steps, leave it outside till its exercised enough to make it back up the steps on its own. Don't reward it with mcdonalds.
6. Be, accountable. I know its a stretch, but give it a shot. Take responsibility for yourself for once. If your "poo poo" isnt all in one sock enough to take care of yourself, you certainly don't need to be taking care of someone 3 feet shorter that isnt allowed to vote.

[CNF2002]

Hmm. ARE parents required to both work or have a single parent working two jobs?

How often does an adult change cars these days? The average 'size' of a house has increased by several hundred square feet. And they move more often.

Our savings rate is negative. Walmart, known for selling cheap disposable goods, is the number one sales holder. What does the average person spend on their kid for Christmas? How much does the PS3 cost? Remind me how many people bought one for $4000 on ebay last month? How much is your cable TV bill? Thanks to easy credit, Americans pay a higher percentage of their incomes just to interest charges (often on disposables such as gas and food).

Really, do we need to work so many jobs, or are we just working to line the pockets of corporations with million-dollar CEO severance packages by buying useless junk that we've been convinced we can't live without?

[asiantay]

Any chance you wanna throw in "Private sector funding"?

Government funded school is kinda like... DMV for kids. Allbeit there needs to be some agency to set some sort of standard, which should also come from the private sector. We all know public schools can be great, but on average private schools are superior. Just don't mention (F)USC.

[CNF2002]

Any chance you wanna throw in "Private sector funding"?

Government funded school is kinda like... DMV for kids. Allbeit there needs to be some agency to set some sort of standard, which should also come from the private sector. We all know public schools can be great, but on average private schools are superior. Just don't mention (F)USC.

Yeah, right. Throw a bunch of kids with attention spans of 10 minutes into a room, hand them a numbered ticket, and make them sit for 4 hours and wait 20 minutes in 4 different lines while the 'teachers' keep passing you off into other lines because they don't want to deal with your problems.

Let me know how that turns out

[Nalian]

Uh - our birth rates put us no where near becoming china in the foreseeable future. The national birth rate has been falling since around 1990. I think you're on a tirade for a problem that doesn't exist.