*The National Governor's Association held its annual meeting in Boston in July, 1994. South Carolina's Governor Carroll Campbell, Jr. played a large part in a presentation featuring the information superhighway. Students whose excerpts we printed above, would have been especially interested in the segment that showed that parents in the near future would be able to keep tabs on their children's progress at school via inexpensive personal home computers. A parent was shown in a kitchen setting late at night having a snack while listening to his child's teacher talk about homework assignments, test scores and upcoming events. Examples of the student's art work appeared on the computer screen as well as a view of the child himself, who could be heard reading during class. The parent pressed a key and was able to pull up his child's attendance record and grades. Messages between parent and teacher could be sent by E-mail at any time, day or night, to be retrieved at the receiver's convenience.
*The illiteracy issue that was mentioned as a cause of social decay in the last section, was tackled in several of the essays the Foundation reviewed in the spring of 1994:
"I believe that if a system of testing similar to the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test and the American College Testing took place in every school in the nation as a prerequisite for graduation, our country's literacy would be dramatically increased." Rebecca Rothberg, Barnesville High School, Barnesville, Minnesota
*Students also addressed the scarcity of public resources, another cause discussed in the last section. Cindy's proposal (below) manages to provide job training while at the same time cutting school custodial and administration expenses:
"For non-college bound students, job skills should be offered. Many tasks around the school could be given to students [so they could] earn both credit and job experience. Morning announcements, could be typed by a student, along with other secretarial tasks. A teacher's-aide class could be offered [and] students could work at local businesses during study halls. These few ideas could be used at any school and could offer students a start in their future." Cindy Bonn, Rolla High School, Rolla, North Dakota
*Nancy (below) wants students to value their education. Variations of her idea have been used successfully and for many years by a large number of private schools. They also happen to cut costs. However we suspect that many people will think Nancy's proposal, as written, carries frugality a bit too far:
"There are numerous ways people are trying to make education better. I feel as though students take education for granted. Students know that they have to be educated. It's a right, not a privilege. We need to let students know it's a privilege to go to school. Students who really want to learn shouldn't be interrupted by the disruptive students. Students need to understand why education is so important. I feel we can achieve this by having students pay for their education through work programs or something similar. For instance, if a student wants to take six courses he has do three jobs around the school. Jobs could include grading papers for teachers, sorting mail for the office, or helping the janitor do a job. When students buy the one hundred dollar Nike's, they take care of them. So if students had to pay for their education, wouldn't they value that also?" Nancy Graff, Strasburg High School, Strasburg, Colorado
*A more extreme position was expressed by a caller to KGO, a San Francisco talk-radio station. The gentleman suggested that the parents of students dismissed for bad behavior pay the money that is taken from a school when their children are absent. The caller suggested the $40/day (varies) be added to the parent's income tax bill or deducted from their welfare checks.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Any readers who have seen the movie Logan's Run (people are liquidated when they reach age 30) might share the relief we experienced upon reading Aimee's first line in the excerpt reproduced below:
"I think that we need to start with the adults that we have today. We need to hold seminars in companies and businesses to talk about the problem of irresponsibility. If the adults are irresponsible, then chances are they are going to raise their child irresponsibly." Aimee Hunter, Aubrey High School, Aubrey, Texas
*We also think Melanie has chutzpah:
"More people need to believe the way I believe." Melanie Grassi, Marion High School, Marion, South Dakota
*We wonder what's going on with Andy:
"I would get a security system for my house so my kids will not sneak out to go to a party. Every week I would evaluate their rooms to check for any trace of drugs. When they would go out I would have them come back at twelve and I would stay up to make sure they came home alright." Andy P. Gray, Hoonah High School, Hoonah, Alaska
PROPOSALS FOR BETTER COMMUNITIES
*Students were encouraged to tackle whatever social problem captured their imagination.
*In the following excerpt, Andrew explains his program for controlling health-care costs. Some of it is reminiscent of the earliest Clinton health plans:
"I think we should establish a small hospital system that would be controlled by the separate state governments. It would be federal law that each state would have to have the system. Any claims brought into court would be sent to that hospital and would be paid by the state.... [Only bills from the state designated hospital could be submitted] by the person making the insurance claim. If the injuries could be [healed] ...the hospital would get paid and the victim would [submit a bill for wages lost]. We would have to stop all these mental suffering claims. If a person was affected mentally by something, money would not fix it anyway. If we do away with all the foolishness and games we should be able to deter people from fraud." Andrew R. Schertz, Eureka High School, Eureka, Illinois
*Anthony tackles consumer ethics:
"Many consumers obtain illegal copies of software from friends. These people are known as software pirates. The pirates refuse to take responsibility for the proliferation of illegal copies with the excuse that the software is too expensive and too under-powered. If you had a chance to borrow a copy of an $800 software package, you would probably do it. The software producers also refuse to take responsibility with the excuse that the prices are so high because of the proliferation of illegal copies.
At first software companies tried to combat this problem by implementing some form of copy protection. Some of them just prevented consumers from easily making honest backup copies, but some were vicious, destroying files on your computer. Copy protection has only proven to inconvenience and alienate the honest consumers, and done little to thwart the dishonest software pirates.
I think the only way for this problem to be resolved is for consumers to start saying No! to their friends when they ask to borrow a copy of their software. The software companies must also do their part too, by making better software at a more affordable price."
Anth