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[Gina Norman <gina AT vnet.net>]

> this whole issue is beyond my level of comprehension.  whatever happened to 
> the whole "god helps those who help themselves" thing??

Now you've done it... you had to go and bring religion into this...  ;-)

Though I certainly advocate personal responsiblity and taking control of
your own destiny, I also can see that it's easier to "bootstrap" yourself
when you already know what boots are and that they have straps.  (Which,
in and of itself, is an odd construct.  I'm pretty sure that *none* of my
boots have any straps at all... laces, sure, but no straps...)

So, I think there's a balance.  I think there are some people (and I'm
assigning no socio-economic attributes to those people) for whom any
amount of opportunity or help (or even prodding or poking) will result in
no net change.  I also think that there are some folks who, having been
shown a path to changing their circumstances, will up-and-get-'em and
exceed all expectations.

NCSSM, for example, has a somewhat controversial policy of weighing
qualifications for students from extremely rural portions of the state
differently than students from metropolitan areas.  There was a time that
I didn't understand this policy, but then I realized that if you had no
opportunity to take geometry in the 9th grade then perhaps your SAT might
be lower than someone from an area where it was almost mandatory.  It
twisted my mind even further when I realized that some kids weren't even
exposed to the possibilities that are out there. (To be overly
philosophical, how can you know what you're missing if you don't know
what's out there?)  [Also -- I should separate the philosophy of this
principle from the *application*, which was often flawed.]

Anyway, I'm trying to balance my (normally quite Darwinistic)
propensities.  I'm not entirely sure I've convinced myself, but I
thought it might be worth exploring a more balanced perspective.  That,
and I hate the idea of potential going untapped ...

YMMV, of course.

-gina




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My brain seems to have a circuit-breaker-like mechanism that, when I get
confused and befuddled by the overwheming monstrosities of my life, causes 
a default to the simplest and most pleasant of thoughts.  Like Marshmallow
Peeps.  I *like* Marshmallow Peeps.

Gina Norman                                      And the only bit that
gina AT vnet.net (me personally)                    really matters:
ginanorm AT nortelnetworks.com (me at work)         http://users.vnet.net/gina
gina AT earthling.net (me personally, again -- sick of me yet?  ;)
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