|
I'm not a firm advocate of punishment either,
albeit more for practical reasons as opposed to moral.
Yes, like you mentioned, imprisonment only adds to the financial burden of society.
Besides, imprisonment seems a tad rash.
Fines could be implemented, but that's only going to adversely effect the child, IF the family is already low on money.
In addition, enforcing those rules will also take up resources.
This is why I'm totally for incentives, or NOT giving incentives if the gov't wants to change behavior.
If the parent opts not to take child support classes, be financially responsible, etc, there ought to be incentives offered.
This would be easier to regulate b/c ppl would regulate themselves, being the natural opportunists (nothing wrong with that, we all are on some level) that they are.
Also, if the parents don't bother to bring kids up well, everyone suffers, not just the kid.
It's odd how our gov't doesn't mind using so much funds on public schools, yet so little on this.
School can't, and really ought not be expected to fix everything.
They are there to educate kids, not to discipline and fix the problems parents (and the gov't) fail to implement.
I studied education for a little bit (terribly depressing profession that wouldn't realistically fit my personality) and spent many hours in teacher observation.
I feel like teachers are being spread way too thin for being expected to be 'teacher-disciplinarian-therapist-counselor' all in one pkg, and some 30-40 kids in one classroom.
No wonder why results aren't always optimal.
|