Peter T,
What you describe backs up my argument of one aspect of American life that conservatives completely ignore and that is dealing with school children that come from a home where parent involvement is lacking in one way or another.
To me, and I realize that this is putting a lot on the plates of educators, but to me, school systems should be developed in a way that they also are a safety net for children at risk or in need.
What I'm getting at is conservatives and their actual war on education seem to have this perception that all children come from wonderfully assembled families with well-rounded and involved parents. It is their Fantasy Island when it comes to families.
And the next question that needs to be answered is, what should a society do when it comes to children at risk and in need? Let them sink or swim? Sinking seems to be their answer, rather than thinking of the best ways to ensure as many children as possible have the best opportunities to learn as possible.
It's like how do we prevent, not deviant behavior (the word deviant seems to imply sociopathic behavior), but behavior society deems as unfavorable, and there are things a society could do that would alleviate some of this, but fail to do so. This is really bizarre because some of these things one would think would land right in the area of conservatives. Take nutrition.
When it comes to brain development, it has long been proven the importance of good nutrition from conception to that of the earliest times of a baby/child and how good nutrition is later tied to behavior because of brain development, especially in the earliest years of a child, including the time in the womb.
My point is, in a caring and even self-serving society, one would think that it would be geared more toward providing this to those in need so that they would physically and mentally develop in the best ways possible, especially when it comes to years later.
But what do conservatives do? They bitch and moan about school lunches and the like, instead of understanding what is done from birth on to young childhood benefits us all and the benefits vastly outweigh the costs of the nutrition.
So, what I'm suggesting is, what do we do about all those children that aren't born into loving and engaged households and are with parent(s) that are incapable of providing such things?
But I guess I should not be surprised because this is how Americans are about almost all things - Americans are so myopic and refuse to try and observe things from the eyes of others and act accordingly and instead base all things in society as reflected of how they live and were brought up.
And one would think from anecdotes like you have described would prove that what these other people from other cultures have done would be something to emulate and when it is not to fully implement such aspects, then substitutes would be developed and installed.
