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Root Causes
North Miami Beach, FL March 7, 2001 Aaron H.
Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then, Opinions pro or con are welcome.
ROOT CAUSES
It is rare that we look for real reasons. Superficial explanations for
things that bother us usually suffice. In the same way the mob accepts
lynching as the solution to a problem, we accept symptoms as the be-all of a
problem or controversy. Consider "poor" schools.
If you focus on poor schools you might focus on reforming them to make them
better. Or, you can concentrate on building other schools. By neglect you
will soon see the poor schools disappear. You do not consider that they are
poor schools because they are filled with the children of the poor. Instead
of looking at root causes you deal with the appearance. It is easy to slap
a coat of paint on a poor-performing surface than to examine the underlying
cause of its poor looks. You might consider doing something about poverty.
Poverty is the root cause of producing poor people, poor children and poor
schools.
Many people think throwing out the baby with the bath water may be the
solution. That baby is the root cause of the problems he or she brings with
it into the world. If the baby were not here, then all the care needed from
the time before birth to the time that child expires as an old worn out
person will have consumed the supplies required to keep it going and to get
it out of trouble along the way. The baby and the bath water allegory is
not too far amiss from the poor school and its destruction by withdrawing
help to sustain it because it serves poor children. The endless cycle of
poverty must be a proof of the unacceptability of being poor. It is a
metaphor for obscuring the root causes of poor schools that do not cure
poverty.
One root cause for poor performance of schools for the poor is the way
people who support their own good schools think of the line, "There but for
the grace of God, go I". In essence they blame the victim for who could
blame God? Does not God look out for those who look out for themselves?
God obviously does not look out for the poor. The poor attend poor schools
and God again, obviously does not approve the poor schools. The root cause
here is that the victims of a care-not system cause their own problems.
People actually believe this. What do you think?
Carol's Evaluation:9 out of 10.
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