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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (14939)	5/30/2001 4:30:27 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Don't we want to encourage people to do better than the minimum? Of course we do. It's simply a question of how best to do that. My view is that the specification of the rights should be less formal, less particular, and separate from the specification of the wrongs. You have your wrongs neatly printed in your little rule book. The rights are presented informally in a variety of ways and as a menu of options. To use your example, what standard would you set for time spent with child? I designed a five-tier merit-pay performance system for the SEC and a pass/fail one for the EPA. How many hours a week spent with a kid gets you an outstanding or a very good or an adequate or a needs improvement or an unacceptable? Put that in your rulebook and you get parents thinking they'll go for the adequate or the very good, check the specified number of hours, grab their watches, and watch the clock while watching the kid for the requisite number of hours. Is that really the point? I think the point is that a parent breaches a trust relationship with a child if he doesn't provide for that child's development. That's wrong. That goes in the rulebook. Then you have a bunch of gurus with lots of ideas which are presented as guidance on TV or in classes or in books from which parents can choose. The admonishment to not do wrong is in one place and the stimulus and guidance to do right are someplace else, someplace more nurturing and user friendly. People naturally want to do well, more than the minimum requirement. They do it more easily if it's presented in a positive way than as a standard. Of this I am convinced. Karen