Some discipline thoughts and more on Labor Day

We've seen a lot of issues lately with kids on D-I basketball teams getting suspended for legal issues.
Just about everyone has an opinion but most that I have seen are very inconsistent...very hypocritical..but I have been consistent for as long as I have followed college sports.
I go by two separate reasoning points -

-First that any violation of team rules needs to be identified and disciplined right away. So many fans and coaches use the "let's see how this will play out", or "we'll let the legal system run its course", or "we will handle this internally" excuses...
And of course those lines are just another way of saying...
"we need this guy bad enough that I really don't want him to miss any games".

Also as we have seen at places like Mississippi State, SIU, and just about anywhere Bob Huggins is - that non-essential players get strong discipline or get booted, but the stars are coddled and pampered...rarely ever missing any games or even exhibitions.
Lastly on this - coaches who hide the info about players' violations then who only discipline the players when it comes to light publicly or when a blogger mentions it (as has happened at ISU & SIU) are not to be trusted in this realm. They are clearly NOT good disciplinarians.
I can still recall the public statement a couple years ago by the ISU head coach when one of his underage (19 year old) players got a DUI -- he said the player was immediately and totally suspended from all team activities...
BUT -- the very next day the local news reporter went to their practice/"boot camp" and the video shown on TV displayed that very player fully participating in all activities -- exactly what the coach had said was NOT going to happen.
How can you believe or trust a guy who does this?

-Second - every kid, if his violation is not a premediatated attack on someone, deserves redemption and another chance.
Petty crimes, arguments, he said-she said issues (especially when no injury occurred or where the worst thing is a "bust-lip"), and substance use issues fall into the "give them a 2nd or even a 3rd chance" realm - but raping underage girls, repeated drug use or peddling, and brutal attacks & bar fights should be grounds for instant dismissal.
All too often we see players doing these big time crimes getting off with little or no discipline.
Despite all the wailing and whining by the bashers, not one single issue at Bradley has ever fallen into the 2nd category - not one.
So point fingers if you want - but BU thankfully has never had to deal with a serious issue...not even a DUI or drug arrest at any time.



Then back to the Labor Day thought....
Labor is being celebrated because hard work pays off and is the foundation upon which this nation is built.

So what's with this program that's touted on the front page of the paper like it's really great for this nation??
The article is titled...

"More than a free lunch" - LINK

I won't bore you - but in short this US Dept. of Agriculture handout program is summed up in this one short statement...
"Nearly 11,000 students in Peoria District 150 are receiving free breakfast and lunch at school thanks to a pilot program introduced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture this year.
The program allows schools in which 40 percent or more of students qualify for free or reduced meals to provide daily free meals to every student regardless of need.
Twenty-two of the district's 28 schools are part of the program."

11,000 kids whether they need it or not get free lunch & breakfast. 11,000 every day at a cost of at least $15 a week (that's their claim) - that's at least $165,000 a week!! If the school year is 40 weeks long, then just do the math -- Peoria alone costs taxpayers almost $7 million.

So even if Donald Trump's kids were at one of those schools, then the taxpayers would still have to foot the bill to provide FREE BREAKFAST and FREE LUNCH to every single kid in the entire school??

Are you serious?? I don't remember getting free lunch when I was in school, and almost everyone in my class did fine and graduated!
We didn't even get free milk -- we had to bring our milk money - so why do kids need FREE LUNCH?
Some say it helps them perform better in school. Yeah - right - where the heck is the evidence of that?? These schools for the most part are doing terribly.
In fact in almost ALL the schools where this is being done -- separate studies show the kids are performing quite poorly!
The typical liberal line is then we need to give them more help - more freebies, maybe even free clothes, a free calculator, a free computer, heck - why not just give them the day off and some money to go shopping for whatever they want??

Has anyone given thought to the concept that we are creating an entire generation of lazy kids who expect freebies and handouts?
If we create millions of lazy school kids who are always expecting a FREE lunch "regardless of need" then could it JUST POSSIBLY BE that those kids won't bother to try very hard on their own -- at anything??
Are we not creating the very problem these ill intended programs are claiming to target? I am convinced we are -- these federal programs are locking kids into a handout and welfare mentality.
If any kid of mine was in one of those schools (a premise that makes me giggle to begin with) I would either take them out or send them with their own food and teach my kids we don't need handouts, we will work for what we have and we won't be a lifelong burden to others who are working (Labor Day, remember) and paying taxes!

If you read that article they actually seem to be saying it IS GOOD if those schools have more than the 40% minimum of qualifying kids - so that the whole school can eat for free. Yeah -- that's really GREAT!!!! Nice job Grenita -- keep up the good work!!

I might not have said a word if the kids who qualify for free meals were the only ones getting them - but this is an insane idea that if just 40% of the kids qualify then we'll give the freebies to everyone!!

BUT -- are these lunches really free??
Of course not - someone pays for them and the price is staggering...
first someone pays the cost of the meals, and we all know how efficient government spenders are -- what with their $1200 toilet seats...
BUT - even worse is the multilevel web of government agencies that cost taxpayers BILLIONS of dollars!!
Just the manual that says who qualifies for free meals is WELL OVER 100 pages long...
http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Governance/notices/iegs/EligibilityManual.pdf
...the actual law and all the accompanying regulations is over 1000 pages!
This bureaucracy costs more than anyone can calculate!

So in the end that carton of milk probably cost $10, and the banana the kid gets was $15...and that doesn't include the cost of this kind of crap -- that one kid gets sick and sues the entire school district for MILLIONS!!!
It is happening everywhere!
http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?s=11287249&clienttype=printable

The final question I have is how can some schools (mainly private ones) educate their kids for less than half the cost per pupil that public schools spend, and yet those same private schools have nearly 100% graduation rates and ACT/SAT averages that are 20-40% better on average than kids on public schools?
How can they do it for half the cost but end up with FAR, FAR better results?
Main answer is that they are NOT letting the government and social engineers do it for them. But sadly the feds don't care how others are getting it done - because they always think they know better.

Sadly parents already kinda know all this but still send their kids to those schools where their kids are given a bad education...

"Despite 18 months of press love, yesterday's Gallup/Phi Delta Kappa poll shows Americans completing a resoundingly negative report card on Obama's education initiatives, with a mere 34 percent giving the president a "B" or better, and 59 percent giving him a C, D, or F.

With similar clarity, the public overwhelming rejected point by point the aggressive, market-ideological thuggery comprising Duncan's arsenal of "school reform" tactics: paying students for grades, mass firings, using punitive funding schemes, etc.

So far the main result of Obama and Duncan's adventures in school reform is that now a startling 80 percent of respondents believe the federal government should play no role in school accountability."
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10140