Thursday, March 26, 2015

Drowning Man Parable

So I don't know why, but this morning I woke up thinking about the Drowning Man Parable.  It can be used as a benchmark to identify primary causes.  The story is of a woman standing by a fast flowing river when she sees a drowning man struggling in the rushing water.  She jumps in and pulls him to safety, but no sooner is the man secured on the banks of the river when she hears another scream for help.  Again and again she spends her day pulling victims from the river.  Finally she asks the question, "who the hell is throwing these people in the water?"   In a perfect world she and the former victims go and conquer the story's antagonist, but it sort of ends with the question, leaving the reader to decide the next move.

When I think about yesterday's post about education and apply the drowning man parable, the solution to improving education seems simple.  Every study confirms that income and social networks (family, personal contacts) are the primary indicator of educational performance.  The proposed solution to improving education has been to starve the public education system of funding by proposing various tax incentives that seem like a 1% giveaway, diverting funds to private charter schools, and testing to hold teachers "accountable" for student performance.  Applying the parable, good policy would be primarily about working to address income inequality (like the $15 dollar minimum wage campaign), job creation and training, and more supports in the classroom to grow the child's social and cultural understandings.  For several years running, Congress debated extending unemployment insurance leading to showy floor fights between the Republicans and the Democrats.  Have any of them tried to live on an unemployment check?  Keep your stinking poverty check and create real jobs with the money.  I could go on, but I'll save it for tomorrow.  Down with the jerk who keeps throwing people in the river!
   

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