Here's one of my more often verbalized rants, but I thought I'd post it here for posterity.
So, I think that a whole bunch of benifits should be attatched to the graduation of High School, so that kids are really, really motivated to graduate. As would immagrants, former dropouts, et cetera.
Basically, with the graduation of High School (or equivalent) people would then recieve the benifits of full citizenship:
driving, marriage privledges (usually gotten at age 16)
right to vote (usually at 18)
rights to drink, smoke, gamble (21)
Plus all the other benifits of legal adulthood (credit cards, running for office, independence, etc.)
And maybe $10,000 or so in new currency, as a means of injecting new money into the economy. They could use this towards furthering their education, or investing, or wasting on drinking, smoking, and gambling. The nice thing about using newly minted money rather than regular money is I don't like monetary redistributions, so this seems like useful ideological loophole for me.
I think would be excellent motivation to learn, perhaps enough to have truly inteligent kids try and progress as fast as they want to get out into the real world.
Of course, I would also seriously try to make the education requirements much higher than they are now, at least as high as citizenship tests on history, law, and whatnot. Definately laying the foundations in personal financing, computer skills, history, legal system, geography, sciences, literacy, mathematics, and all the other crucial skills for life.
I'm also toying with the idea of a year of service in the government, whether in a military, beurocratic, or administrative capacity. Something to both get an insiders look, and far enough from home to get some perspective.
My only concern would be for those who cannot pass the standard for graduation. Would this create an underclass of powerless people?
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5 comments:
Neo Legacy: btw have you ever seen starship troopers
Astralspirit: first one? yes. pretty good movie
Neo Legacy: ok your high school for citizenship thing is very similar to the storyline in it
Astralspirit: i know. especially the service requirement thingy
Astralspirit: i'm wavering on the voting rights portion. I'm thinking that those could be given early, but become universal at age 18 or so. worried about non-voting adult populations feeling like they aren't a part of the proces
Neo Legacy: an interesting idea, but there are some huge pratical considerations that have to be factored in
Astralspirit: oh, no doubt
Astralspirit: especially when i'm a big advocate of home-schooling
Neo Legacy: that and the idea of inaleable rights
Astralspirit: ...yeah...
Astralspirit: but many of those *rights* are already withheld by the current age requirements.
Neo Legacy: true, but there is a huge difference in withholding by age and withholding by a test
Astralspirit: oh, i know
Neo Legacy: age is something that evryone achieves without any work ... a test is something not everyone can pass
Neo Legacy: there will be people who can't pass period
Astralspirit: i know, that is one of my major concerns
Neo Legacy: well in any case i need to get something to eat
Astralspirit: thanks for the conversation
First READ the Book Starship troopers. It has a much better explanation on how earning your citizenship works. The other portion the book talks about is earning your citizenship and your right to vote with some type of government service. The whole point of this type of action would be to create an enfranchised and disenfranchised set of people. This does not take away their rights but it does take away their ability to influence their government, and that is exactly the point. Only those willing to serve and participate in government get a voice in controlling it. Everyone should have the opportunity and the choice to serve, if the choose not to than they have no say it what happens.
As far as paying kids to complete school, I disagree. If the only value a student gets out of an education is the check at the end then our education system has failed. The whole point of education is to develop a critically thinking mind. One that can evaluate any situation that it comes across and come up with some type of solution. If an education can’t do that then it is worthless. Information that cannot be applied is superfluous. An education should not be designed around getting a particular job either. That is technical training not an education. Anyone can be taught to do a series of tasks with the right stimuli, but creative thinking… that takes an educated brain. That is the goal, not to have a million minds that all think alike but to have a million minds that think for themselves and have the courage and fortitude to act on that knowledge. Anyway that’s this old soldiers perspective…
Dad
My incentives for education weren't to 'program' people, its actually indended to trick them into educating themselves. The more of an effort people put into educating themselves, for whatever reason, the more likely they are to come across something that really interests them and inspires them to learn even more. I'm trying to design an education catalyst.
And critical thinking is exactly my end goal. I'd love to have everybody putting some deep thought into their daily actions and act with purpose and meaning. Critical thinking is one of the hardest skills to teach, because so much depends on the student. It requires people to apply fundamental pricipals in inovative ways; ways that, by definition, are hard to predict, and impossible to test via a simple scantron test.
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I agree with your dad about the money. Education is not for the money, although that is what many people see it as. We should not have to pay people to better themselves.
If you are letting people with a high school diploma have a citizenship, what about people who come over with the equvilent? Do they just get it right away? Some people come and do highschool in the states from other countries (Korea for one...) do they get to have a citizenship cause their parents have enough money to send them to school in the states?
:) just trying to stir up trouble!
Casey
PS I don't know if I told you but I am PCSing to Germany soon!
See I like the idea of providing young adults with investment capitol. Yes, it is a bit briberous. Maybe it does need tinkering.
As for people from other countries coming over and passing high school. Yes, this is one of my ways of making the whole immagration/citizenship thing easier. If you can survive HS in the US (and maybe a year or two of service) then by all rights you should be given citizenship, reguardless of birth.
As for others coming to the country with enough education to pass the test? Hmph. Yeah, I think that'd be okay. But they definately would have to take some sort of service requirement to fully entrench thier loyalty and identity.
But yes, the exam I envision would have an english literacy requirement, fair knowledge of american history, US political systems; all the basics should require our kids to know before sending them off into the world.
See, I'm also no automatically giving citizenship to the kids of Americans born overseas. If you just happen to have an American father you never met and grow up in, oh, Nepal and have no knowlege of America, then you probibly really shouldn't be counted as a citizen. Same thing goes for people who just happen to be born here and are raised in Timbuktu without any american values or culture or anything.
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