Thou MUST work for food assistance

[Richard]

Why NOT set the bar exceedingly high ?

To late for that,we live in a time when schools teach everybody is equal and we all can be millionaires and president and everybody is a winner.

The reality is the opportunities are there for those who choose to take advantage and work for them,there are no guarantees at succes,the system provides a security blanket of sorts when you fall but it is your personal responsibility to get back up.

People like to blame the system and people like to game the system and then wonder why it does not work for them.

America is the land of opportunity but you have to put effort into it,you will always have rich,poor and everything in between,always has been always will be,I know people that are highly successful,they never spent a day in school because they were in the fields working as sharecroppers starting at age 12.

An education does not guarantee anything,one still needs to want to succeed.

[O3H]

I believe we need to fail kids who don't ""want to"".
Make them repeat a grade or two so they understand/comprehend items.
The earlier they discover that society expects a lot, the better

[archfan]

I believe we need to fail kids who don't ""want to"".
Make them repeat a grade or two so they understand/comprehend items.
The earlier they discover that society expects a lot, the better

Somehow, I don't think you'll end up with highly-motivated, interested students if you do that. You will more likely have someone who will run for the door as soon as they're able.

[Meddle]

I TOTALLY AGREE. Observe handicapped placard users for a day and tell me what percentage appear to be physically handicapped and in my opinion the only ones in need of that privilege.

You can't always tell a debilitating disability by looking at someone. They could have a heart or lung condition or arthritis or other joint or muscle issues that makes walking distances difficult.

[Meddle]

I believe we need to fail kids who don't ""want to"".
Make them repeat a grade or two so they understand/comprehend items.
The earlier they discover that society expects a lot, the better

That costs money the taxpayers don't like. The system simply is too expensive to support that plan. It also breeds contempt among those left back, makes them angry and bitter and more likely to lash out.

[O3H]

We already have a bunch of high school dropout who sell drugs
and shoot each other at all hours of the day and night.
Taxpayer money well spent -- hardly.

[Zacha341]

I'm glad you said that. Of course there are those faking and using handicapped parking placards illegally but NO, you can't always look at someone to judge.

You can't always tell a debilitating disability by looking at someone. They could have a heart or lung condition or arthritis or other joint or muscle issues that makes walking distances difficult.

[Richard]

Somehow, I don't think you'll end up with highly-motivated, interested students if you do that. You will more likely have someone who will run for the door as soon as they're able.

I agree with this and Meddles post,I was held back in 3rd grade and barely made it through 4th and even spent a couple of summer school years.

Because of math,not sure why I have never been able to get it outside of the basics,when I applied myself I would get A s in everything else.

I have built houses ground up with a blueprint in my head but ask me to put it on paper and it is game over,now days they get to use calculators in school.

I was out of there by mid year 11th grade,I am not sure if it was based on being angry and in the summer school times there were also quite a few students so I was not alone.

That was back in the early 70s and class sizes were not as big as they are now,but the school system is designed for bulk education and not really towards the individual,everybody has the mind of an individual and we are all unique individuals.

When you joined the military back then you took a test that determined where your skills lay,mine ended up to be high mechanical ability.

The school back then did try a program where they took all of us that were behind in the 10th grade and separated us into a separate group of classes,there was like 30 of us,but with the testing the answers were also provided so I am not sure if that was just an early version of pumping up test scores to increase the school score overall.

I kinda wonder if that military style test was given back then in order to see where my strengths lay verses the overall picture if that would make a difference.But even at that,if it is the job of the school system to tailor to the individual.

They say knowledge is power and there are a lot of individual skills out there where one can make a really good income based on the skill verses the formal education.

When it comes to collage and the whole level of education dictates your standing in life to me is the wrong approach,I know some highly educated people that outside of a book they do not have a clue and some zero educated that are highly successful.

So I guess it boils down to asking if the school system as designed is doing its job in providing the basic skills needed to survive and be productive in the real world.

I also think a lot are being left behind,they may be horrible academically but that does not meen they still can not be productive and self supported in a way that just not has been discovered or uncovered in them.

In a system that is designed for bulk knowledge we just write those off instead of giving them a chance and label them as failure,by quitting school I did not fail in life like I was told would be the result of quitting school.

I think everybody has thier little thing inside of were thier skills lay and maybe instead of writing those off maybe the approach should be finding where that is and fine tuning that part.

[O3H]

All I'm saying is that we need to expect more from people, NOT less.
Do not lower test score standards, Do not accept laziness, apathy, etc.

Make America great again involves WORK, a work ethic, and education.
...And I say that in the Kennedy state of mind, not Trump.
Kennedy challenged the nation to exceed, each and every one of us.

[Zacha341]

^^^ I agree. Greatness starts with each individual, and should not be tide to a politician. Yes, relative to Kennedy the call was to the individual first. It's easy to tear down, and slide down. Hard to build and retain!

[Richard]

Why is it that democratic controlled inner cities are the bastions of lost opportunities?

Not to make it political because politics should have nothing to do with education,I have a friend who’s job is to write the guidelines for a large school district,80% is the politics of it all.

Parents trying to control,local politicians useing the system to further agenda,let the educators educate and let the brain surgeons do brain surgery.

[O3H]

I think its utter nonsense for "kid" to get screwed royally,
because he was born in school district with extreme financial chaos.
ALL children in the USA should get the same HIGH quality education,
regardless of where they were born in America. It's absolutely ludicrous.
A bit of socialism is needed to even out the playing field for kids.
Eliminate the idiocy of local school boards with local control.

[Bigb23]

All I'm saying is that we need to expect more from people, NOT less.
Do not lower test score standards, Do not accept laziness, apathy, etc.

Make America great again involves WORK, a work ethic, and education.
...And I say that in the Kennedy state of mind, not Trump.
Kennedy challenged the nation to exceed, each and every one of us.

So did Stalin - 22 million dead in the first ten years of his new policy.

[O3H]

Interesting how other countries do it - and they kick our ass !!!!

In 2016, 12.3 percent of households in the United States were food-insecure
which equates to 41.2 million people and 6.5 million children.

Yet, in 2015 when the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development [[OECD) released the results for global rankings on student performance
the U.S. again faltered. With the U.S. slipping from 28th to 35th in Math.

Dumber than a box of rocks, some might say.
UN-educated voters are easily manipulated, brain washed, and led like sheep

People throw around socialism and communism like it applies somehow
-- it doesn't, it's a red herring, and it's really an irrelevant argument.

[stipes]

Whats wrong with work? This is What the other part of the USA thinks, live tru each day.

The little village of Tallmansville, W. Va., sits alone now. The eye of America's pervasive media has moved on, leaving the families to bury their dead in hillside cemeteries, and the preachers to ask questions for which there are no answers, save perhaps in the Book of Job.
Watching the tragedy unfold, I kept being reminded of Coalwood, the mining town in West Virginia where I grew up. Back then, I thought life in Coalwood was pretty ordinary, even though men died or were horribly maimed in the mine all the time. My grandfather, run over by a careening shuttle car, lost both his legs and lived in pain until the day he died. My father lost an eye to a snapped cable while trying to rescue trapped miners, though he kept on working for fifteen years afterward. He would eventually die of black lung, which is a polite way of saying he suffocated to death, his lungs choked with coal dust.
When I began to write my books about Coalwood, I was surprised to discover, upon reflection, that it wasn't an ordinary place at all. It was a town filled with people who had learned to live in a harsh place by adopting four basic attitudes toward life: We are proud of who we are. We stand up for what we believe. We keep our families together. We trust in God but rely on ourselves. Put together, it allowed them to say and believe: We are not afraid.

My life in Coalwood and present-day Tallmansville is separated by nearly a half century. Yet, I recognized everything about the village I saw on television: the tiny but spotless church sitting proudly on the hill, the old wood-frame houses, and the vast mine. Just as in Coalwood, the people of Tallmansville are strong, resilient and self-effacing. Thank God they are, and that they continue to do the dirty work of coal mining, on which the prosperity of this country depends.
My father use to say if coal died, the country died. He was right. Our economy rests on the back of the coal miner. If we did not have the black diamonds of the mountains to burn, we would lose more than half of the nation's energy reserves. As the price of oil has increased, coal mining in West Virginia has become king once more. Coal miners these days are not pick and shovel types. They operate complex, heavy machinery. They know mine geology and understand intricate ventilation techniques. Their world underground is dynamic, challenging, and difficult. Death stalks them every day. During the television coverage of the Tallmansville mine disaster, the question kept being asked, in one form or another: Why do these men do it? Why do they go into these deep mines?
When I was a boy, one of my favorite places to go was a pine-filled hollow high on the mountain behind our house. It was a place where the industrial song of Coalwood subsided. I would sit on a dead log and listen to nothing except the beating of my own heart and the thoughts racing through my head. One of the things I used to think about was the cold war between my parents, a war that had been fought without cease all the days I had known them.
My mother hated the mine. She saw Dad leave the house every morning and disappear inside it. She argued with him constantly about it, begging him to quit. But he never did, not until he began to spit up blood and his miners refused to let him go inside any more. Sitting there, in my little copse of pine, I couldn't understand why my dad loved the mine so much. Eventually, I went underground and then I knew. He loved the challenge of coal mining. He loved the choreography of the miners at the face, a ballet of heavy machinery. He loved that mining coal defined who he was and it gave him an identity and a source of pride.
This was true for my father in Coalwood long ago. I believe it is true for the miners of Tallmansville today. Fortunately, in times of tragedy, they and their families are still sustained by the old values:
We are proud of who we are. We stand up for what we believe. We keep our families together. We trust in God but rely on ourselves. We are not afraid. *Homer Hickam*

[Meddle]

^^ Do you have a point?

[stipes]

God, who we have no doubt is also a West Virginian, still does his work, too. The people endure here as they always have for they understand that God has determined that there is no joy greater than hard work, and that there is no water holier than the sweat off a man's brow.

[Meddle]

^^ Little too much Boone's farm today, eh? It's OK. That happens sometimes.

[stipes]

I hate wine.LOL. Honest,,, I was raised on hard work, you give a man all you can inside to instill pride, pay and lay down at night to know you did your best . Im 56 years old, I hurt a lot, never thought I would hurt like we used to hear the old people say how bad they hurt, but starting to understand. For people that are crippled and cant work I would help them 100 percent, but you seen and know of people as I do and a hell of a lot of younger people that can work drawing a damn check. They are like zombies, no soul no heart. What future do they have. None.. My best friend got laid off a couple years ago and couldn't get help, and guess what, he made too much money, and as I told him he f**ked up cause he worked for a living.Thank God he was only laid off for a short time and he got behind on things but making it ok now..
About God..I believe in him and Jesus. Maybe that's us in this part of the USA that thinks that way but he made us to be strong and believe in ourselves.I wont get into the religion debate, my Mom is Japanese,was budast,, but to each to own, and no matter what anyone believes in you have to have that belief inside that you can be proud of and hold your head high, and when you sleep at night you can never worry about wrong...We all have to have something inside of all of us to be proud of, maybe that's what I been tryin to say. Take care, and I hope your weekend is good...

[Canadian Visitor]

I hate wine.LOL. Honest,,, I was raised on hard work, you give a man all you can inside to instill pride, pay and lay down at night to know you did your best . Im 56 years old, I hurt a lot, never thought I would hurt like we used to hear the old people say how bad they hurt, but starting to understand. For people that are crippled and cant work I would help them 100 percent, but you seen and know of people as I do and a hell of a lot of younger people that can work drawing a damn check. They are like zombies, no soul no heart. What future do they have. None.. My best friend got laid off a couple years ago and couldn't get help, and guess what, he made too much money, and as I told him he f**ked up cause he worked for a living.Thank God he was only laid off for a short time and he got behind on things but making it ok now..
About God..I believe in him and Jesus. Maybe that's us in this part of the USA that thinks that way but he made us to be strong and believe in ourselves.I wont get into the religion debate, my Mom is Japanese,was budast,, but to each to own, and no matter what anyone believes in you have to have that belief inside that you can be proud of and hold your head high, and when you sleep at night you can never worry about wrong...We all have to have something inside of all of us to be proud of, maybe that's what I been tryin to say. Take care, and I hope your weekend is good...

Your posts are polite and well intended, and as such please understand I mean no personal disrespect.

But I can't get my head around anyone believing in a God, nor can I understand a passive acceptance of an unnecessarily oppressive existence.

Ontario's economy is rip-roaring hot.....we shut down all the coal power years ago.

We have a mining sector, in fact we're a world leader, but in Canada at least, its very high-paid, comfortable, safe work, nowadays. [[was much as you describe in the past)

Why is a brutish existence good? How does believing in a being whose existence is not supported by the facts helpful?

Why is evidence based policy not the norm?

I don't mean to be harsh, I sincerely can't grasp holding onto a what sounds like a miserable way of life with some sort of reverence for it.

PS, a good Chianti is wonderful, and an Awesome Amarone amazing. [[red wine)

[Zacha341]

....But I can't get my head around anyone believing in a God, nor can I understand a passive acceptance of an unnecessarily oppressive existence.

That's how I feel about the IRS!

[Honky Tonk]

That's how I feel about the IRS!

+5 .......

[One Shot]

That costs money the taxpayers don't like. The system simply is too expensive to support that plan. It also breeds contempt among those left back, makes them angry and bitter and more likely to lash out.

THEN SO BE IT! It’s that mentality on your part that breeds that behavior. Lashing out and getting passified is what they expect! Let them lash out and see that’s not going to get them anywhere. Maybe then they will do something to help themselves!

[Wesley Mouch]

...
Ontario's economy is rip-roaring hot.....we shut down all the coal power years ago.

We have a mining sector, in fact we're a world leader, but in Canada at least, its very high-paid, comfortable, safe work, nowadays. [[was much as you describe in the past)
...

Where did Ontario get its coal? Was it regionally mined, or was it imported from the western provinces?

[Canadian Visitor]

Where did Ontario get its coal? Was it regionally mined, or was it imported from the western provinces?

A few links w/some answers!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/can...bers-1.3408568

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_in_Canada

I'm can't find a source list for the old Ontario plants, but I would assume a good deal came from the east, and probably some from the US as well.

I do remember it coming in by ship, which would make the west less likely.