Legislating the Symptom | Michigan, Schools & Parents | Video

In this video there is someone who
is advocating sending parents to jail for
3 days in Michigan if they do not attend
Parent Teacher Conferences. To be "fair"
to the topic, apparently the action will
be a last resort option only, and will
have certain exceptions.

I find a few things interesting about this
interview. The woman who is being interviewed
makes the comment about how many say we
shouldn't legislate morality, but then goes
on to say that we already do as a form of
defense for doing it yet again.

Just because we do something, does it mean
we should do it again? Somehow there seems
to me to be a fault in that logic, even
though I know that our courts work on just
those types of arguments.

We seem to value what has come before,
but we also seem to cherry pick what
we value, based on whatever it is that
we seek to create in the present.

This particular school district is doing
their own form of cherry picking from
the past to attempt to legislate the
actions they deem best, as a RE-action
to behaviors they think are problematic.

Behaviors that are moderated often don't
help when the cause remains untouched.
In one interview in the piece a woman
says if the law gets involved it might
give people an incentive to act. While
I wouldn't necessarily disagree, there is
a bigger issue at hand that will remain,
even if the law is enacted.

Reacting to an issue isn't the same as
taking actions which focus on the source
of an issue. If parents aren't involved
with their kids' schooling, there could be
a number of issues that prevent it, and
those who just aren't interested in taking
part won't necessarily be making different
choices if threatened with a jail term.
One just has to look at the already
crowded jails to know that the threat of
incarceration isn't much of a deterrent
for what some segment of society considers
undesirable behavior.

There is a much bigger issue here, and
attempting to lawfully regulate something
that is already not working, based on what
has occurred in the past, with a disregard
for the cause of what is occurring in this
moment, could quite possibly make matters
worse.

What would this issue look like if those
who cared to make a difference stopped
reacting and stepped back and looked at
things for what they are, and made decisions
based on what could really make a difference
instead of affecting a superficially acceptable
outcome?

It might be worth considering that the video
says that the children who seem to do best
have involved parents. A parent forced into
taking an action like the one suggested does
not an involved parent make.