Is there an answer?
(If you don’t know the question, CLICK HERE)
The socioeconomic issues in play here will not be overcome by any flavor-of-the-month, lip service campaign. Raising awareness is barely scratching the surface when it comes to solving any type of problem. Here’s an idea that Keli Goff proposes that makes a great deal of sense…
It doesn’t cost you any money. You won’t need payday loans to participate. All it takes is time and caring. This shouldn’t be mandatory volunteerism like the disgusting HR 1388 bill that appears to be one of President Obama’s pet projects. People shouldn’t be forced to care. However, take a look at the above numbers again. This country will bury itself alive unless everyone acts. When it does, you will have no semblance of a life left to live. Fire and brimstone falling from the sky, cats and dogs living together… that is what we’ll have, and nobody will be safe.
Do you care now?
Good. This is not someone else’s problem. It belongs to everyone who breathes. Goff goes on to cite a study by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation:According to a report conducted for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation:
Four out of every 10 young adults (ages 16 to 24) lacking a high school diploma received some type of government assistance in 2001, and a dropout is more than eight times as likely to be in jail or prison as a person with at least a high school diploma.
Or try this Las Vegas Sun headline on for size as Goff has: “Dropouts more likely to become Criminals.” It doesn’t take much thought and research to see how true this has traditionally been. If you live in America, work to make it a better place. Don’t sit on the sidelines.
Bill and Melinda are doing what they can
It may be true that only a handful of individuals on Earth have the financial resources to attack a problem the way Bill and Melinda Gates can, but we shouldn’t lose heart. Look at their example. Their foundation deals with issues that mean the difference between life and death for many. Literacy and dropout rates are at the center of their view screen, as evidenced by their partnership project with VIACOM, “Get Schooled.” It meets people “where they are” and utilizes the media to positive effect (which is exceedingly rare for that beast).
Gates has called America’s dropout rate “the silent epidemic.” The cure is involvement from the very beginning in a child’s life and education. That is a parent’s job. If a parent’s personal career gets in the way of that, they should find another line of work so they can attend to what should be the most important thing in their world.
Liberty to live and learn
Goff closes by relating an encounter she had with a woman at a Harvard Business School conference. The woman told her she believed it would “be impossible for our country to produce another Barack Obama.” That is, a person from a disadvantaged background who could rise to become president. She believed there were just too many obstacles for such a Horatio Alger story anymore.
Obama’s ascendancy fits the stereotypical old image of the American Dream. Whatever differences I have with many of the socialist policies President Obama is trying to force upon America, I will give him this: he has worked hard to get to where he is today. Goff believes that we need to work together to open the way for such success stories. I agree with that, with one caveat: make sure the people who rise from rags to riches maintain their commitment to individual liberties. It’s how Barack Obama was able to reach the presidency; perhaps he needs to relearn old lessons.
Related Video:
Discussion of High School Dropouts: Stem the Tide or We All Pay (2)