One Major Investment to Solve A Few of America's Problems

Introduction

I think there is one major step that would help our American way of life tremendously and make a profound investment in our future. I think it could also greatly reduce poverty and crime.

We are a nation of rights. The constitution guarantees a certain minimum set - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and some amendments talk about speech, press, assembly, religion and similar things. But if you really think about, the role of society and government in all of these is pretty passive, protective. We agree not to restrict these rights.

There is however one right where we have agreed to spend money to actively make sure that everyone actually has an opportunity to enjoy it - education! And we all seem to understand that this investment has tremendous returns for all parts of our society. Our results here have been inconsistent, and our investment rate is uneven, but we do seem committed to it. My religious tradition holds that it is one of our basic human rights, together with food, housing, employment, health care, employment, and the freedom to congregate.

I propose that we gradually extend this right and obligation of education down as far as 1 year old children. We can start with pre-school, 3 and 4 year olds. I think this will have a profound impact on our society, and be a bargain.

Why?

The basic values that underpin any society are called its culture. Our culture has some major elements that support our success as a nation and society. These values make up our 'world view'. By the time we are 5 or 6 years of age we have internalized these, and we pretty much see the world in these terms. We get those values from our parents, and our peers. Both have a powerful influence on how we see the world.

I think a lot of our problems come from a minority of us who are growing up with values that do not support our society. These folk do not prosper in this context, so they adopt behavior that causes themselves and the rest of us grief. Our schools are powerful forces for localization, and exposure to different cultures, but schooling happens too late to make a fundamental change in most of our kids. And in many cases, the teachers or peers in our 'neighborhood school' are reinforcing the 'wrong views'.

The following list has just a few examples of how our culture sees things differently from some parts of the world. Some of these are fundamental views of how things work. Others are more developed rights and values -- but I have a hard time drawing the line between those.

Cultural Values

The following list has just a few examples of how our culture views things differently from some parts of the world. Some of these are fundamental views of how things work. Others are more developed rights and values -- but I have a hard time drawing the line between those.

• Individualism
  We are the most independent folk on the planet. We celebrate individual contribution and diversity, creativity. This supports many of our scientific social, and artistic achievements. Other cultures focus on collective efforts and consensus so much that they suppress this creativity.

  Our heightened sense of competition seems rooted in this, although that is also partly 'tribal'.

• In-charge
  We believe that we are in charge of the planet. We build it, fix it, operate on it -- sometimes to the detriment of the planet. We dig the well. build the dam, isolate the disease. Other cultures think of themselves as part of the planet. They live with life the way it comes, they are the victims of disease, not the masters.

• Investors
  We think of ourselves as investors. We put stuff in with the hope of future return. We plant, build, save, plan and organize. We think we have to put in to take out. This has a corollary in valuing hard work. Other cultures have more of a "raptor" approach. They tend take what is there, without any contribution. They think of it as their right.

• National Identity
  It appears that our tribal identity, our social consciousness, is at the level of the nation. Some other cultures have barely gotten above the family level to the tribal, and are struggling to gain a sense of identity as a state or nation. I think that this is a natural maturing process which just takes a certain amount of time and effort.

  Hopefully there is an even more advanced stage, where we all identify ourselves as inhabitants of the planet.

• Rule of Law
  We are convinced that we should respect the rule of law. If we don't like a law, we work to change it, not to destroy the structure of our society. We tolerate failure in our leaders, but do not tolerate disrespect for the law. Other societies regularly discard their government and opt for a new one. They seem to condone leaders who depart from the law.

• Honesty and Fairness
  We are fundamentally committed to integrity in personal and business affairs. If you follow the rules, and work hard, you should succeed. Taking unfair advantage is against our rules. We seem to have learned that this is the required basis for our political and economic systems. It's clear to me that this is one of our weaker traits, but I do think we pay it good lip service, and we are working on it.

  Some other cultures seem to value the ability to rip off others - it seems to be part of the 'raptor' approach. It's called 'I got mine'. Advancement by trickery and deceit is valued highly. They tolerate leaders, governments and businesses that take advantage of their citizens. They don't seem to understand that they are all paying the price. They want the chance to 'get theirs', whatever the cost to the society. Just watch Italians driving in Rome!

• Minority rights
  A minority in any category, race, politics, religion, whatever, has basic rights in our society which the majority cannot restrict. This idea comes from our history of religious persecution in Europe, and our ancestors' desire to never be subject to that again. In some societies, conformance to the rule of the majority is the only option. There is no freedom to do other than the rule of the majority.

• Individual rights
  Individual have inalienable rights which the state cannot limit -- and we must all respect. In some cultures the state grants individuals whatever rights they have and can remove them. In our society, the state derives its powers from us.

How This Might Work

I realize that our multicultural society has such great diversity that many people would disagree with some or all of these. And I'm not saying I like all of these, or that we need to continue these as such. The point is that we do have some common values, and they seem to support our way of life. Like any values, they can change over time, and hopefully we will adopt better ones as we continue to mature as a society.

The problem arises when some segments of our society grow up without some portion of these values. Some members seem to be following a different drummer.

Since these values are learned so early, it is important that we guarantee that all of our children be exposed to a broad mix of our society in a formal educational setting from age 1 to age 18. I don't think we need to inculcate any particular set of values in our children, or any particular culture. We just need to make sure that they all have some exposure to the common values of the society, beyond those of their parents and neighborhood. This would help to break the cycle of poverty and crime that comes from some parts of our society.

To that end, our schools for younger children need to be very broad based -- a mixture of inner city, rural, and suburban. As much as practical, we should try to get some intermixture of neighborhoods, economic levels, ethnic values. The children don't need to adopt the values of others -- they just need to be aware that they exist and that they have value in themselves.

You will likely note that this initiative also has the side benefit of providing universal child care -- which I think should be one of our fundamental "rights". I think we would profit enormously as a society if working parents could be assured that their children were well cared for during most of the working day. Most European nations figured this out some time ago.

You should also note that busing as a means of integrating or schools has much the same goals as stated here. It appeared to our highest court to be the only means to guarantee that our children would have a fair shot at an equal educational opportunity. That opportunity for education also includes an exposure to our basic world view -- but it comes too late if it starts at age 5.

You will also note that this has the same intent as Head Start, which has had amazing success. Those children who get special attention before kindergarten do much better in the long term, than those who do not have this investment.

References

A study of the Economic Policy Institute published in 2004 found a 3 to 1 return for every dollar spent on pre-school children. Another in May of 2007 found the society reaped a 12 to 1 benefit in decreased crime, decreased health care expenses, and increased wealth generated by our children.

See: http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/books_exceptional_returns where you can find a complete copy of the study.

And: http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/book_enriching

For more of same, just search on preschool benefits in Google.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it. One major step to end poverty and crime, prejudice and unfairness in our world as we know it.