The freedom to fail:

this is a response to a video found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJLCbv5K0WU

If no one fails, no one will have the incentive to truly succeed.  In the public schools, courses and tests cannot be dumbed down to the point that everyone will pass.  For anyone to have incentive to truly succeed, the tests must be challenging and push children’s limits.  Social promotion has the good intention of making sure no one is left behind or feels bad. However, that doesn’t work so we must leave some behind, but make opportunity for people to get back on track.  Here in the state of Virginia, there is a program called NOVA.   It is a community college that gives those who did not get high enough grades to attend their desired college a guarantee of transfer to that college if the required GPA is achieved.  This is a wonderful program because it gives those who failed the opportunity to recover from failure.  It isn’t a given that they will attend the college of their choice, but with hard work they can create that opportunity.  The U.S. government should use programs like this to retain a safety net while still allowing failure.

New generations of Americans tend to think that because they were born in this country they will be entitled to a good life.   This makes people think they can just coast through life gobbling up its joys and our resources.  In this generation, we are seeing more and more kids in their twenties not working and living with their parents.  We as a nation need to stop letting people live off of society and force them to work for a better future.  This will not happen unless we let them fail, which will give them motivation to work toward success.

As Americans continue to increasingly take things for granted, we will lose the hard work and ingenuity, which are the foundation that America was built on and have made it what it is today.  Without them, America’s economy will be surpassed by nations like China and Japan, and America will fall as a world leader.  The American dream has always been that with hard work and determination anyone can succeed.  We are losing that dream.  Some people think that the American dream is to have fun and party all of the time and that will be the death of us as a nation.