Commentary: The Failures of Head Start and Affirmative Action Programs

From what I have read head start is a failure. It may work to improve grades a little bit during childhood but grades generally did not improve in their later years. This is because IQ is largely inherited. You can influence a child to be more ambitious and to take education seriously but one's intelligence is set once they get near adulthood.

The greatest failure of these types of social programs is that they are based on the premise that everyone has an equal ability to learn. Of course this is not true, some people are naturally gifted at reading, writing, or arithmetic. Some students need more time and some just an incapable of understanding complex subjects. By the proponents of social programs like head start not facing this reality the end result was millions of dollars of wasted tax revenue and the wasted hope of better academic success for failing students.

It is no coincidence that head start programs peaked about the same time as political correctness was infiltrating educational departments. The failure to face the reality that not all students have equal cognitive abilities caused the biggest waste of tax dollars in education spending history. Although these programs have failed those in ivory towers and those on the fringe left continue to proselytize such irrational dogma.

The failure of affirmative action programs:

Race should not be a factor in college admissions. Colleges should accept students based on their academic qualifications. The danger of affirmative action is that it promotes lesser qualified people based on something as arbitrary as their skin color. This means that the quality of the professions suffers as well. For example, it is essential that the medical doctors in this country are held to the highest standard. If one of these doctors had sub par grades and was still able to get in the medical school because of his race what are the ramifications of this once this doctor begins his practice?

Next, consider Law school. Imagine if your attorney didn't get accepted in the Harvard based on his/her qualifications but because of their skin color. How confident would you feel about their ability to provide legal service to you. This is the real life affect of affirmative action. This is the socially sanctioned lowering of standards that should never be allowed to take place on college campuses or in the professional realm.

It is important for one who feels that they are being held down by society to take a deep look within themselves and to see whether they are creating their own self-fulfilling prophecy. It is the ultimate failure in life to have a victimization complex. Life is much more complete for a person when they have an inner sense of security and a belief in their own self efficacy. When one says that they need affirmative action to get through life there only insulting themselves.