Two Questions

[davywavy]

There's always a temptation for me to editorialise on my LJ. Often I'm the soul of discretion, presenting facts unblemished by my own opinions, with neither slant nor spin. That's not to say it's easy for me to do so.
There are certain philosophical/political ideas with which I disagree for what I consider to be perfectly good reasons and what I have to realise is that the people who agree with those idea do so for what to them appear to be good reasons also.
So, in order to try and understand the thinking of others, I'm going to ask two questions of my lefty chums. I might not agree with your answers and I'm sure that my comments section will quickly degenerate into mudslinging as usual. However, I'm asking the questions because they're points which seem to be articles of faith to many, but the arguments presented in favour to me have never made any sense. It may be that I'm just missing something, so I'll give it a go.

1) What is wrong with streaming children according to educational ability?
2) What is wrong with requiring people to work in order to receive state benefits?

Comments

I aint a lefty but...

[zenmeisterin.livejournal.com]

1) Having experienced both in my time I thoroughly agree with streaming. In my experience, when we were all lumped together as one the weaker students struggled and the more adept ones got bored. When we were in sets (higher, lower, whatever) then those who needed more assistance in a subject could get it without detriment to others and those who were better at it could go on ahead without leaving the others confused. Also smaller class sizes, more personal attention yadda yadda.

2) Some people cannot work for part or all of their lives for specific and good reasons. This is not the same as lazy people who go 'I can't be arsed' and expect everything on a plate, but does to an extent include those who try to get a job and don't have much luck for long periods of time. Jobseeker's Allowance is *in theory* ideal. Shame the implementation is awful.

Re: I aint a lefty but...

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Well, as noted above, I spent a year working in a hospital as a volunteer when I was long-term-unemployed. I can't understand why requiring people to do so is so strongly disagreed with in some terms.
There is a difference between cannot work and are not working. Cannots are one thing, but people who simply are not working - why not get them doing something?

Re: I aint a lefty but...

[zenmeisterin.livejournal.com]

Didn't realise you included volunteer work in that! I agree about voluntary work for charities etc. as long as they realise it will be difficult to look for a job if you're spending 9-5 5 days a week working for free to get dole money...

Re: I aint a lefty but...

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Who said anythign about 9-5 5 days a week? I did 3 days a week. At an hourly rate, the dole is about a days work. So; a day or two of work every week to get your dole. How about it?

Re: I aint a lefty but...

[zenmeisterin.livejournal.com]

That sounds fair.