Where do you stand, On different social things Options

[Hartmann]

I am guessing that given the more left leaning of this board, the answers are fairly obvious but I was wondering where people stood on the ideas of self-reliance, government intervention, and work.

My firm belief is that people as a whole must be self-reliant, that government should stay out unless it is needed, and hard work is necessary to succeed.

Where do you stand?

I listen to my brothers talk about what they want to do and I'm amazed at their goals. Nothing to do with hard work or being self-reliant but more along the lines of American Idol and "famous". It is one thing to dream of being a baseball player when you're young but I get this impression that we are becoming more and more focused on the easy route rather than the tough but rewarding one.

[Mommy]

Where did you go to high school, btw, Inferia?

My brother goes to a public school in El Paso right now. He learns nothing, and has several threats on his life. He has come home with a bloody lip, a compressed vertebrae, a fist-sized bruise on his chest, a sore knee... just this year along. Some kid told him he was going to stab him. He gets offered drugs at least once a week. Why? All because he has autism, and the kids think he is a retard (which he is not).

I have taught in Lubbock schools as a substitute. Students were not any different there than they are in El Paso.

I start working in Savannah schools next week, either as permanent staff or a substitute (depends on how my interview tomorrow goes), so I guess I will see how the schools are here.

Texas education is taking a quick slide to the craphole. Dallas ISD just cut several hundred teaching jobs because they went WAY over budget. Because of this, they are having to cut several programs. I don't know if this is true, but I used to hear all the time that DISD was one of the worst school districts in the nation. I can't imagine how shitty it is going to be now that all those teachers lost their jobs. Sad thing is, Highland Park (a suburb of Dallas) has one of the best school districts in the nation.