Entitled to what??

For my inaugural blog post, I figured I might as well get the blood boiling for some of you.  The following column was written by a good friend/teacher of mine, Greg Johnston, regarding entitlements.  He teaches high school and sees first hand how we are raising a generation of young adults that think they are entitled to everything.  Whether or not you agree with any of the article is up to you but it should at least get you thinking...enjoy!

"Erroneously, Social Security, is often referred to as an entitlement. Social Security was sold as a mandatory retirement investment program under the New Deal and would still be a good plan if the federal government had not borrowed all the reserve fund back in the ’60s.

These entitlement programs, along with interest payments on the national debt (which is all we pay), make up most of the government’s yearly bills.

Let’s take a minute to define entitlement. It doesn’t matter what Webster’s Dictionary or some political theorist says. What matters is how those who receive entitlements define the word.

On one hand, an entitlement can mean help given at the right time to our neighbors, allowing them to survive a tough time that may be outside their control. Others define an entitlement as something you are supposed to get, from someone or something else, as your right. It is not dependent on your status, efforts or contributions. This is how the courts have come to define an entitlement — it is a civil right.

Though many recipients of these programs have industriously and continuously contributed when able, others have yet to make any contribution to the system from which they receive.

Herein lies the problem with all government-instituted programs — the inability to distinguish between those who deserve and those who do not.

The most expensive program state governments run is education. A good education system, in my mind, is akin to national defense. Educated and hard-working citizens guarantee U.S. economic and intellectual competitiveness. This is a necessary expense and this definition allows me to continue to define myself as a true limited government advocate.

Many others see education as an entitlement, with babysitting and meals provided.

Okay, let us say education is a right given to all, whether citizens or not, instead of a privilege, to be earned by hard work.

Does this attitude create future citizens who feel they are entitled to many other things, regardless of their own efforts or contributions to the system?

I don’t know the answer. On one hand, I have worked with students who, given repeated chances to turn in late work, given multiple opportunities to get it right, will work, mature and eventually succeed. They later have become what Andrew Jackson called “producers” in our society. I stand in awe of what these kids have overcome to become.

But at the same time, I have had many students who simply take advantage of us “suckers” who are foolish enough to give them a pass time and again; the school and teachers are simply things they use to take from, but never give back. I have taught a few “third-year freshmen,” students who have hung around, using the school transportation to subsidize their social life, creating discipline problems in the classroom, and spending as much time not doing work as they can.

Unfortunately, the proficiency tests the CCSD puts so much stock in cannot distinguish between these two types of students. We are obligated to accommodate both. If you remove the folks taking advantage of the system, then the “No Child Left Behind” police threaten you with all sorts of penalties, and your boss’s boss’s panic-driven boss says you are not doing a good job, starts threatening your livelihood, followed by the icing on the cake with the Review Journal writing editorials about how bad your teachers are.

Expectations from the politician-educators who run the CCSD and simplistic editorials aside, my bigger concern is that of entitlement. Are we, by giving multiple opportunities, spending obscene amounts of money on retakes and special accommodations? Are we creating an entire generation of future citizens who will expect a nation that not only tolerates a lack of work ethic and failure, but actually demand we continue to support them, just like we did while they were in school?

I believe wholeheartedly that folks who are willing to work need everything we can give them. My colleagues continually encourage our students and we all spend countless extra hours helping those who need and respond to help.

Personally, I will work extra with anyone who is trying to succeed. But do we all have to support those who don’t wish to work? In spite of all of the political rhetoric, are there children who choose to be left behind and parents who don’t care if their children are left behind? And will we all suffer in the future for subsidizing failure?"

Greg Johnston teaches at Virgin Valley High School.