3 ms·

No, I'm not blaming the kids. I'm blaming the parents, I felt like I made this pretty explicit in my second paragraph. Virtually no kid wants to go to school. T

No, I'm not blaming the kids. I'm blaming the parents, I felt like I made this pretty explicit in my second paragraph. Virtually no kid wants to go to school. That's irrelevant. Some kids don't want to eat anything but junk food. You shouldn't let them. You're the parent. You cannot allow your kid to be truant. You are nearly guaranteeing them poverty, that is abuse and neglect, and it should be punished. There are some stories here of people saying it worked for them, this place isn't "most people," most people on HN came from families with money or had opportunities bestowed upon them. Reeks of privilege. Forget the doomerism of what a child might think, again it's about perspective. That's not even why these kids are skipping class to begin with, that's just some invention people here have said. We're talking about kids that can barely read or write, not HN poster kids with educated parents or good surroundings. People are skipping classes because their parents allow it, kids will look for excuses and always have. The parents should be held liable, and it's not just bad for the kids, it's bad for all of society. People arguing in favor of truancy are totally detached from reality for -most- people.

silverquiet 3y ago
It's funny - in a sense I pretty much agree with you; I had to be cajoled into school and everything as well and found it fundamentally miserable. Certainly I understand that without an education the future is quite grim (especially for me as I have some physical disability). But after that treatment, I decided it was not something I could ever put a child through, so in that sense I have some sympathy for these parents. Though to me the solution is obvious; simply don't have children.
- partiallypro 3y ago
  I think people should have kids, society and humanity cannot survive without children and children can be a gift. However, if you're going to be a bad parent and don't see their lives as your responsibility, not just for their own sake but for the sake of society... don't have kids. But if you do, and you -allow- your kid to be truant or become a criminal, etc., you should be punished and held personally liable.
  - silverquiet 3y ago
    Do you think people set out to be bad parents? And do you think that they can be punished into being good parents? It seems pretty tough to me. And yes, the idea of having children in order to feed them into the same meat-grinder of education and employment that I went through in order to perpetuate some cycle for reasons unfathomable to me is about the least convincing reason to do so. I used to think I was an outlier, but as fertility rates fall near continuously, I'm beginning to suspect that I was just early in realizing it.
linuxftw 3y ago
For most of human existence, the great unwashed masses were illiterate, and society seemed to plod along just fine. Where's the sense in forcing children to spend the best years of their lives as automatons to an education system, just to be baristas at Starbucks anyway? Everyone simply can't work a white collar job, somebody has to clean the toilets. We should at least let those people enjoy their childhood.
- partiallypro 3y ago
  Your argument is basically "the poor should stay poor and uneducated," which I reject, and society should reject. Kids that are truant are more likely to become criminals (idle hands and idle minds do bad things a lot of the time,) be homeless, draw welfare, require public support, etc. That's not ideal. We can easily stop that from happening, we should not encourage it. You say they'll work at Starbucks, it's just as likely they will just not have a job at all. Some truancy is because their parents can't enforce what their kids are doing (though some are just really bad parenting), or are too poor too (work double shifts, etc.) We can support those people with social programs, while also making sure their kids go to school and making sure the schools are funded, even hinging the programs on truancy. Incentives work.

silverquiet 3y ago

It's funny - in a sense I pretty much agree with you; I had to be cajoled into school and everything as well and found it fundamentally miserable. Certainly I understand that without an education the future is quite grim (especially for me as I have some physical disability). But after that treatment, I decided it was not something I could ever put a child through, so in that sense I have some sympathy for these parents. Though to me the solution is obvious; simply don't have children.

partiallypro 3y ago
I think people should have kids, society and humanity cannot survive without children and children can be a gift. However, if you're going to be a bad parent and don't see their lives as your responsibility, not just for their own sake but for the sake of society... don't have kids. But if you do, and you -allow- your kid to be truant or become a criminal, etc., you should be punished and held personally liable.
- silverquiet 3y ago
  Do you think people set out to be bad parents? And do you think that they can be punished into being good parents? It seems pretty tough to me. And yes, the idea of having children in order to feed them into the same meat-grinder of education and employment that I went through in order to perpetuate some cycle for reasons unfathomable to me is about the least convincing reason to do so. I used to think I was an outlier, but as fertility rates fall near continuously, I'm beginning to suspect that I was just early in realizing it.

linuxftw 3y ago

For most of human existence, the great unwashed masses were illiterate, and society seemed to plod along just fine. Where's the sense in forcing children to spend the best years of their lives as automatons to an education system, just to be baristas at Starbucks anyway? Everyone simply can't work a white collar job, somebody has to clean the toilets. We should at least let those people enjoy their childhood.

partiallypro 3y ago
Your argument is basically "the poor should stay poor and uneducated," which I reject, and society should reject. Kids that are truant are more likely to become criminals (idle hands and idle minds do bad things a lot of the time,) be homeless, draw welfare, require public support, etc. That's not ideal. We can easily stop that from happening, we should not encourage it. You say they'll work at Starbucks, it's just as likely they will just not have a job at all. Some truancy is because their parents can't enforce what their kids are doing (though some are just really bad parenting), or are too poor too (work double shifts, etc.) We can support those people with social programs, while also making sure their kids go to school and making sure the schools are funded, even hinging the programs on truancy. Incentives work.