Overuse of a crutch can damage?

[Gladys]

In a thread discussing public education and home-schooling, Dave Scotese wrote:


...I would like to know if you recognize the general crutch problem - that overuse of a crutch can damage a person. I'd guess you understand it, but you're sure that it doesn't happen to any degree with school, and we just disagree about that. I tend to see it happen everywhere. This makes me a little less helpful toward others than is optimal, but my fear of hurting by helping is so great that I would much prefer to err on the side of helping too little than of helping too much. The symptoms of helping too much grow slowly and insidiously infect motivation and adaptability. The symptoms of helping too little are easier to see and usually come early enough to rectify by helping more. You can always add salt, but removing it proves difficult. Watching the state take my money (by force) and use it to inadvertently hurt by helping is frustrating...
I find this interesting in that Aboriginal spokesmen in Australia have recently bemoaned the impact on underprivileged blacks of decades of government handouts. Another example is the relatively poor showing of privileged, private school students on reaching university.

Is the removal of crutches beneficial for most recipients and, if so, are there losers; and who might they be? Can crutches always be removed in a way that is humane for all? I'm much more interested in the psychology than the politics of the question.

[applepie]

I think the problem with a crutch, for anyone, is that it is treated as normal and not as the aid that it is. Because of this, I think it encourages people to be weak, and all too often I find the people I know with the most help are the ones crying to have more and more given to them. The people who have the hardest way to getting the things they want in life, be it education or whatever else, are the ones who appreciate it the most and stand on their own two feet.

[stlukesguild]

"That which does not kill me, only serves to make me strong"? Nietzsche, eh? One must suffer and struggle to achieve anything? Somehow I doubt this concept... especially when taken to the extreme of suggesting that we deprive children of a free and equitable education because it is a "crutch" and if we take away this "crutch" they will naturally rise and achieve far more. This is but a hypocritical if not twisted rationale for depriving the poor of the one thing that may serve to help them rise above the status they were born into. Yes, there are unique individuals who will achieve no matter what obstacles are put in their way... but to suggest that there is a correlation... that for example Barrack Obama succeeded in getting elected President of the United States, and as such it is obvious that racial inequalities do not exist... or they are actually beneficial... is absurd.

The issue of the children of the "privileged" suggests that "privilege" or advantage is not everything. The child who is born into a family in which he or she is essentially given everything he or she desires without having to put forth effort may certainly become "lazy" and unmotivated, yet one need only look to our previous President or any number of other heirs of the family fortune and the family business to see that privilege still gives the individual an advantage that often far exceeds what can be achieved by others with the greatest effort and determination... in spite of the privileged individual's own lack of serious motivation... or competence. Such can be seen if we only compare the achievements of the populations of the privileged nations vs those of the "third world". When a great portion of the individual's or the nation's efforts and resources are being expended upon mere survival... scratching out a living... higher attainments become less and less of a possibility.

The question about individuals who have triumphed over the greatest obstacles becomes a "what if?" that really cannot be fairly answered. We can point out that this or that individual had the greatest achievements in spite of the most debilitating limitations (Stephen Hawking and Beethoven immediately comes to mind) but we cannot know what that same person might have achieved had he or she not had such limitations. We can, however, look at history and recognize that prior to the efforts to offer the populace something approaching universal free education and a minimum standard of living (shelter, food, etc...) a far greater portion of the populace struggled with abject poverty... barely eking out an existence... and rarely ever rising above the status into which they were born.

I suspect that there are historical issues at play with the native black Aboriginal populations of Australia much as there are with the African- American and Native-American populations in the US. At the same time, I suspect there is a problem with the manner in which "benefits" are awarded as entitlements without responsibilities. Everyone should be entitled to a free and equitable education... but this should be dependent upon certain responsibilities such as proper behavior and proper parental involvement. No child should be entitled to an education while continually interrupting the learning of other children. Those unable to abide by such expectations or live up to their responsibilities need to be placed in a different educational environment.

The same, I would suggest, is the problem with governmental "hand-outs" such as Welfare, Food Stamps, Public Housing, etc... These are taken for granted as entitlements without the accompanying responsibilities. If these "entitlements" were tied to requirements of work, social service, and further education one suspects that they would become a temporary "crutch" for the majority, rather than something permanent... or even something passed on from generation to generation. But when the poorly educated individual can earn more by collecting Welfare, Public Housing, etc... and perhaps a little work here of there "under the table" than he or she can by laboring in a good many low-paying jobs, where is the motivation to even make the effort?