Where Is Eden?

Teach A Man To Fish...

In light of the recent debate and controversy over college student loans—to pay or not to pay, I was reminded of a somewhat foggy slice of insight that had to do with fish or fishing. Not sure of the exact details I went searching for greater clarification.

It’s an oldy, but a goody - and - 2,000 years later I think it still applies… “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” This simple wisdom is attributed to an ancient Chinese proverb.

And - perhaps there weren’t an entire generation of college students behind on their loan payments in the year 5AD, but something must have been going on in Nazareth because in the Bible both Matthew and Luke address the same theme. Matthew highlights the importance of long-term thinking and planning and the value of investing in others by teaching someone a skill or providing knowledge so they can become self-sufficient. Luke reminds us of the importance of helping people in need, not just through short-term temporary solutions, but by teaching them how to do tasks for themselves.

Life-skills, hmmmm…Now how would life-skills come in handy, I wonder?

More to the point why would anyone holding a public office and in any leadership role, conservative or liberal, think for one minute that paying off the debt for someone else’s college degree/education would create a functioning, self-sufficient human being? If our ancestors already knew in the 1st Century that allowing people off-the-hook and unaccountable was a weak idea - then why in little-green-apples would that work any better in the 21st Century?

Somewhere along the way the practice of giving kids a prize just for participation became too common. Learning to deal with disappointment when we’re young and to be happy for the success of a peer, even when we are still waiting, is valuable. But it’s an even split with some people believing it helps to boost a child’s self-esteem, while others argue that it can create a sense of entitlement. Obviously, those students who believed their entire loan or at least 20% should be forgiven - felt entitled.

*Another study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology found that rewards can be effective in motivating children to engage in an activity, but only if the rewards are given for specific behaviors or achievements, rather than just for participation.

Amen to that. But through the formative years parents and educators should work together [which seems to be to a prickly partnership, presently] to decide whether or not to use rewards as a motivational tool. But there are two levels of reward in education. There can only be one student ‘rewarded’ and chosen the class valedictorian, though several others were excellent students too. So, to learn that individual effort/grade point average is its own reward, offering a wider choice of career paths, colleges or apprenticeships - dilutes the envy-level.

As adults we’re motivated in the working world. If we do a better than average job, perhaps we’ll be rewarded with a promotion or a raise in pay. A reward for work well done follows us from school to vocation.

Repaying even some of those student loans actually sets up those same students for the high risk of failure, because they don’t accept full responsibility. I didn’t hear any true hard-luck stories from those interviewed by mainstream media, mostly I heard excuses. Did all of those students graduate? What was their GPA? Did they change majors more than once, more than twice? Was their chosen major in a field that had a good potential [salary] return on ‘their’ investment in themselves? Did they buy a car with any student loan money? AND - what exactly were those students doing the last three years that they couldn’t put what they should have been paying on ‘their’ loan for ‘their’ education toward ‘their’ loan or in a savings account in order to stay current?

We do not need any additional people who feel entitled. There’s already more than we can cope already with holding public office from school boards to Congress and the Senate. Adding those students who got their loans forgiven adds an entirely new generation of the same and puts every Baby Boomer in even more serious jeopardy…Because - we learned to ‘fish’…

Working Without A Net: EDUCATION IN AMERICA (workingwithnonet.blogspot.com)

Working Without A Net: MOTIVATION IN AMERICA (workingwithnonet.blogspot.com)