Quote:
Originally Posted by ISiddiqui
This is a fantastic post! Now, legislating parenting isn't feasible or necessarily desired, but the state can make parenting easier for those on the lower rungs of society. It's what some conservative Catholics (a la, Ross Douthat) refer to as pro-family social policies. So, have the state help more in providing day care. Have the state provide cooking classes - low cost, healthy classes seem to be somewhat of a hit in grocery stores, but they usually tend to happen in the middle of the day. Fund more of this and teach cooking in school - I had a trimester in middle school for a cooking class (the other trimesters involved woodworking and computer graphic design - I think it was supposed to be life skills type of stuff or something). Work more with faith based charities, who know the folks in their neighborhood and their needs - perhaps partnering to form community centers where kids can go after school if their folks are working (if you do it from a young age, you build the habit and solidify the community around these kids).
One of the biggest issues is that poor parents, especially single mothers, feel so alone and isolated from their community. One of the reasons is that they are running around in a tizzy, working multiple jobs and trying to make ends meet while trying to feed their kids and they feel like they have no hope whatsoever. It invariably ends up that when I have done charity work in the community, it is the mothers who are the most thankful - as if you have changed their lives by simply providing them some donated food for Thanksgiving.
No, it was something Dutch said.
|
I like everything what you said, except for the bit about faith-based charities. Why can't they work more with non faith-based charities that aren't potentially exclusionary (either overtly or because people who could use their services shy away because they don't want the association with religion) or hostile to people who aren't of their faith.
I know you have the best intentions in mind, but the reality is that faith-based anything shouldn't be supported by government $$. The optimist in me thinks you're just trying to extrapolate your positive faith-based experiences into something greater, but the cynic in me sees this as a potential avenue for outright government support of different religious groups and/or a potential for massive issues (by politicians stripping money from public services to "privatize" them thru faith-based charities that aren't held accountable to the taxpayers and that can do whatever they want with the $$.