So here I am again on my soapbox but this time I will try not to be so negative. I think discouragement can seep into the depths of your soul and convince you that possibilities are not endless but quite limited. I haven't let go of the fact that I am quite frustrated with our systems that are in place, I will just try not to rant quite as much this time. That being said I do feel sometimes that taking your opinion to extremes can sometimes prove more effective. Make people upset and maybe someone will speak up. Let me add that for now I am really just touching on the subjects,
there is so much more to say. If I stick with this whole soap box blog
thing I got going here, I could maybe talk about it all, but hey that
could take all of my life. I guess we will just have to see what happens, this blog is really my attempt at changing the world, one little post at a time. Moving on though, now that everyone in the world willing to read this knows a little about myself and my perspective, I am ready to put on my examiner of failing systems hat. So which failing system to start with, there are just so many.
Education and Prison I think go hand and hand and are a good place to start. So why do we have so many people in our prison systems in this country? Is is a matter of improper upbringing, genetic traits or societal tendencies? Our country has a system or many systems working together that is or are failing our populations. I could go google a plethora of statistics that break down prison populations and the issues facing our prisons today. Maybe I will later but for now what I do know is this. We put way to many people in jail and prison for nonviolent crimes that could be helping rebuild communities instead of wasting away in a cell. What happened to punishments meeting the crime? There are so many things that inmates could be doing and want to do in their communities. The moment someone enters the prison system there is almost a guarantee that they will become more violent and/or get even more involved in crime. If when your enter the prison system, you are entering a world where survival depends on connections and who you are willing to team up with inside. We are sending so many people that made stupid mistakes into a place where they are being trained to commit more crime or they become so emotionally unstable from the experience that they can't figure out how to reintegrate into normal life.
Prisons are not meeting the needs of the people, they are perpetuating behaviors that are meant to be "rehabilitated." We need to change the way we treat people who make mistakes in our country. If someone was given a way to help fix the problem that they were a part of I do think it would be a more meaningful experience. We can be training people to go back into the workforce while they rehabilitate. If the idea is for inmates to receive hands-on training to reenter the workforce then why do we ask if people have committed a felony before they are hired? We need programs in place that help educate our inmates and train them to make the world better when they get out. We need to make the prison system a functioning system that is worth tax dollars. Who is making money off of keeping more and more inmates in prison? We need to examine who the people or organizations are that are working to keep the system the way it is? Who out there really thinks that what happens in our prisons actually is making inmates better citizens of our society? Why not give someone who has been convicted of a crime the opportunity to volunteer for a organization that works to make things better? We need volunteers, we need soldiers, we need workers, why not let lower level criminals have the opportunity to make a real change in the world, for others and themselves? These are the questions I have. There are obviously others ways to do things in our prison system that treats the inmates like actual human beings instead of animals. I had someone tell me once the he had attended the NH College for Men, he was referring for his time in the penitentiary, why not really make it like a college, why not let it be a shot at a second chance in life and not the end of your life?
I know that I spoke of the prison system before the education system but in reality I do believe that if our education system was sound we would not be having the same problems in our prisons... Watch out everyone where is my soapbox because an young passionate educator is about to talk about what is wrong with our education system....
If people really believe that everyone is given an equal opportunity when it comes to education they are terribly ignorant to what is really happening in the education world. Horace Mann was the founder of public school education and the idea of the entitlement to a free and equal education. He came up with this concept after the immigrants to the New World started to realize that not every population was receiving the same quality of education. There were certain groups of immigrants that were better off than others. At first most schools were religious, and depending on what religion or race you were determined the quality and future of your education. Many people throughout history fought for an education system that we still are not realizing today. We have been trying to make schools free and equal since the concept was come up with more than a century ago. Presently we are experience extreme differences in the quality of public school education throughout our country. There are students in low income areas that don't even have structurally sound and safe schools let alone the computer labs and arts programs that students in the higher income areas have. When schools cannot afford books and supplies, nor can they pay their teachers well, the quality of education provided can in no way measure up. When teachers are faced with less than adequate pay and less than adequate facilities and resources they are much less likely to stay in the schools. The students in our inner city and/or low income area schools do not have the same relationship to education. School might not be somewhere where the students feels safe enough and most likely if they go to that school, home is not much better either. This is just one little hair on the gorilla's back when it comes to digging deeper and really analyzing the state of our education system. Don't even get me started on curriculum and what we teach children theses days, that is a whole other post if not several. Right now I am just dabbling on the subject of, curriculum aside, the quality of the facility, the quality of the resources and the quality of the staff. The research is out there, the test scores are there, the education budgets are public, it is right in front of our eyes and we wonder why our children are the way they are. We wonder why our country has more crime and violence than any other country. We have created a system where the poorer get poorer and the richer get richer, this system will someday come crashing down on itself.. We must come together as communities, as states, as something...and take back the systems... We are in great need of a RENAISSANCE, a rebirth in all senses, because I'm telling you that we are not too far from the DARK AGES.
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