The question, as the popes have also noted, is what responsibility comes with this right. This is one of those things that we tend to forget about rights, namely that there are always corresponding responsibilities and duties that come with them. Indeed, there is a mountain of precedent to demonstrate that rights can be removed from individuals or bodies of individuals for their failure to live up to their responsibilities.The whole thing at Regnum Novum
Take the example of an alcoholic and abusive father. His total lack of living up to his responsibility can mean that the State can supersede his right to raise his children as he desires. Or take the extreme case of a murderer. Because of an individual’s irresponsible use of his freedom the State can trump his right to roam freely and in some rare cases may actually relieve him his right to life in order to protect the community. And of course that last phrase is key. The State steps in during these moments for the sake of the common good. This common good, the maintenance for which the State exists, can require that individuals or groups lose their rights. So you see, the rejection of responsibility can result in the removal of a right.
Now let us turn to the public sector unions of Wisconsin. No one suggests – as far as I know – that these teachers unions are rife with alcoholics abusing children or that they are killing people willy nilly. However, many have and do argue that they have been totally irresponsible in the way they negotiate for benefits, the way they set up review of teachers, and the way they execute their jobs…you know the teaching part of a teachers’ unions
PS> Great blog, definitely worth a follow.
3 comments:
I don't disagree that the teacher's union has been horribly irresponsible in its support of abortion and other social issues. However, speaking as the son of a very good and tough (now retired) teacher - the teacher's union is right to object to merit pay schemes that are not very well thought out and "tried and true" on a limited scale before being set as the standard. If most of the schemes so far proposed had been in force when I was in school I KNOW FOR A FACT that I would have received an inferior education. Not because of the union but because of the parents and administrators who cow-tow to them. Who were the "great" teachers? The droopy morons who played the game. They got all kinds of B.S. recognitions which parents and administrators dutifully "oohed and ahed" over while my dad and others like him went about the job of educating and forming young people for success.
We might also recall that Wisconsin K-12 schools are (overall) the best in the nation as shown by Wisconsin's graduation rate and our consistant 1st or 2nd place showing in nation SAT/ACT score averages. Wisconsin also boasts the third largest post-secondary education system in the nation (behind California and New York).
Fr. Michael, your second comment is a good reminder of what good teachers, good students, and good parents can do. It is, however, not necessarily an indication of how well the system is working. Correlation, yes, but whether it is causation is yet to be seen.
In my experience, the best teachers I had were those, like your example of your father, who were not there for the money, but to teach for the common good. If they would leave a job because they aren't being paid enough, then they aren't really the dedicated people I would like to have in the public sphere. And, yes, full disclosure: my father-in-law and my father were government workers and many more in my family were Church workers, so I know the price of dedication.
Any system will be flawed. It's the nature of our human institutions.
Post a Comment