Population Control

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-Holiday · Wed Dec 06, 2006 11:01 am

there's a thin line between fishing, and standing on the shore like an idiot.

#42 Unread post by **Kal** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 1:47 pm

Someone had the bright idea of private sector funding to specific schools here.

They were supposed to be more in tune with creating the workforce that industry needs or some such gumpf. Government kicked in more funding too.

Turns out that those schools were outperformed by local authority schools.

Industry has no business being in schools, 18thC British poorhouses are a good indication of the final results.

Everyone is entitled to a good education, or at least they should be and you know what? I don't mind funding it because a) I've been through the system myself and b) most criminals are under priviledged, under educated and under disciplined. A good education system can mean I am paying less to Police the Country and I am less likely to be the victim of crime.

For the record I think that parenting classes are a blinding idea and should be at the heart of any education. If I "fudge" up reading my repair manual than I'll damamge my engine and require spares. If I "fudge" up my son no spares are available.

#43 Unread post by **sv-wolf** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 2:53 pm

Kal wrote: Industry has no business being in schools.

I agree 100% but one way or another industry had always been in schools. Industry or business in general is the reason why schools exist. So, if you accept the system you might as well knuckle down to that fact.

In the UK the 1870 Schools Act introduced a form of universal education that created a school regime closely based on the factory system to get working class kids used to factory discipline. It still felt like that when I was at school in the fifties and sixties. From what the grandkids tell me it sounds like school is now even more of an industrial hot-house than ever. I shudder at the effect the system is going to have on them as they 'progress' through it. Schools are designed to eradicate every ounce of creative, independent intelligence that they have. Watch them and you see the lights rapidly going out and it is not long before they begin to mouth the same old platitudes as everyone else. It is very, very sad.

The oily words pronounced by politicians and the media change over time, the policies change with the changing requirements of 'industry' but basically the schools and the purposes of education don't.

In the USA the history is just the same, only the influence of business has always been more direct, promoting the idea of a life of employment with few rights - far fewer rights than anything we have in the UK or in Europe generally. So there are benefits to living on this side of the pond as meagre as they might be - but they are so meagre it is hard to count your blessings.

#44 Unread post by **Kal** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 3:06 pm

You just depressed me, my son will be starting school in just over a year and a half or so.

Mind you my agenda for Jude is to teach him to think for himself. If thats the only thing I can give him then it will be enough - the rest he can figure out for himself.

#45 Unread post by **sv-wolf** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 7:50 am

Kal wrote:You just depressed me, my son will be starting school in just over a year and a half or so.

Mind you my agenda for Jude is to teach him to think for himself. If thats the only thing I can give him then it will be enough - the rest he can figure out for himself.

Sorry if that's brought you down. I used to get depressed about it as well, but then I realised there was no point. I think you're right. I've come to pretty much the same conclusion myself. All I can do is to try to keep them thinking and aware. I don't care what they come to believe, so long as it is truly theirs - though of course it would be nice if they turned out to be decent human beings as well.

I have a new step-grandkid due... now! anytime. He was due to arrive on Saturday, but is biding his time. His name will be Oscar! (Good Grief! - something else I will have to get used to!)

Best of luck!

#46 Unread post by **Kal** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 11:41 am

Oscar isn't so bad, my Ex named our son Jude Leslie.

I figure he is either going to be an Olympic boxer or a sprinter.

On a side note you don't come across as old enough to have grandchildren.

#47 Unread post by **sv-wolf** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 12:43 pm

Kal wrote:

Oscar isn't so bad, my Ex named our son Jude Leslie.

I figure he is either going to be an Olympic boxer or a sprinter.

Yeah! You're right. Some of the names people give kids are crazy. My department sees loads of birth certificates every year. I think just about the most bizarre name I ever came across was 'Jade-Fish' (And yes, the parents were English). Unless you count the name of my crazy Irish cousin, of course, whose mother named him 'Christian Dior' just because she liked it. Or the daughter of a friend who narrowly avoided being called 'White-Ophelia Salome Zoe'.

Kal wrote: On a side note you don't come across as old enough to have grandchildren.

Well, thanks. I rather enjoy the idea of being a wholly immature 55 year old.

Loonette · #48 Unread post by **Loonette** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 1:02 pm

People go through lots of changes during a lifetime, which also includes during the time period involved in raising children. Just because someone starts off with a decent income and a sane frame of mind does not necessarily mean that they will still have those things five years into raising their children. Nor can you judge the character of a person solely on their level of income or their lack of mental illness. There are a lot of people who can pull off a good image on the outside, yet are true jagoffs on the inside, and they do terrible damage to the psyche of a young developing human.

On the opposite hand, some people (like my husband and me) have made great financial improvements since the birth of our first child - my pregnancy played an important role in us becoming more serious about our future. And we are great parents (IMHO). People are capable of changing for the better as well as and for the worse, and no test or set of guidelines can predetermine which people will ultimately do a better job of parenting.

Shorts · #49 Unread post by **Shorts** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 1:42 pm

Sterilize all males at puberty (I'm picking on us guys because ours is generally reversible and less costly). It can be reversed after certain criteria have been met, such as:

I like this idea from the very beginning. I could care less about all the other rules. Let's see no hormone pills to take, unprotected sex and the option to reverse. I'll vote for that.

Simplify people!

Edit: I want the above for my married life

But I'm sure it wouldn't hurt the single life either.

JC Viper · #50 Unread post by **JC Viper** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 2:28 pm

“I’d like to share with you a revelation I’ve had, during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you aren’t actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with its surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply, and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we...are the cure.” - Agent Smith, The Matrix

Well, instead of agents I'm sure Mother Nature will put us in check and restore an equilibrium by using a disease such as AIDS or other natural disasters.

I've never had a GF and I'm 21 so count me out of the reproduction scheme of things cause it ain't gonna happen.