Priorities

If you think instead of just feel, you get some very interesting comments on this post from Joanne's.  Here's the thrust of the post:

“Close to two-thirds of community college students work to support themselves and their families while in school, and they may be facing homelessness and hunger,” write Collins and Vargas. “Many are single parents, and more than a third are the first in their families to attend college.”

Remedial reforms should include non-academic support services for low-income, first-generation and minority students, argues College Completion: Focus on the Finish Line, by the National Center on Developmental Education.

Here's the first comment.  It's not heartless, it's logical:

While I’m sympathetic to anyone struggling to keep body and soul together, I think it’s more than a little bit crazy to prioritize college in these situations. *First* you see that their physical needs are met, *then* you attempt to nurture their educational needs. To try and do both at once isn’t likely to work, IMHO. How in the world can someone who is worried about where their kid’s next meal is coming from possibly concentrate in a classroom? Lots of people can work their way through school, sure, but not when they are simultaneously the sole parent of young children. Has it become sacrilege to suggest that their first duty should be to the parenting of the children, with education delayed until that duty has been met?

Here’s a simpler statement of the problem: what is *my* obligation towards my fellow humans when they choose behaviors (such as having children and going to school) beyond their means? Are all of us charged with providing all of our fellow citizens with whatever means their lifestyles demand? If *I* want to drop everything and pursue a PhD, who supports me and my mortgage? Why are some animals more equal than others?

I’m willing to assume the obligation of supporting children, since they in no way caused the problem. Supporting the wildest dreams of their parents, however, seems impossible and plainly unfair.

The next several comments are in a similar vein.