| | Chris,
That is so bizarre. You gave a quote from Readers Digest and in this thread, post #227, I said, "If there were no Children's Protection Service - a government department, what would prevent children from being abused or neglected by their parents or guardians?" And I don't read Readers Digest.
I could give horror stories of things done by CPS that are much worse than the one Readers Digest gave. But that is beside the point. These are better questions: Do children have rights or can parents do anything to them? If they have rights, are the rights ever being violated by the parents? If so, is it reasonable to expect a child to protect themself or is there a non-government source of protection that would protect them? If not, is it possible to structure a CPS department properly to protect children? What are the problems with CPS departments now and what can be done to change them?
Referring to social workers, you said, "These people do this kind of crap probably because they need to feel important. I also think that social workers bar some type of hostility toward the rest of society. These are people who spend six years of college or more in order to get jobs that often pay around $30,000."
I knew a lot of social workers during the five years I was doing that. Some of them would inspire respect from anyone that came to know them - intelligent, principled, caring, courageous and honest. I also knew a lot of social workers that should have been imprisoned for the harm that came to children due to their continued dishonesty and negligence. But your psychologizing and off-the-point remarks on salaries or educational levels don't bring any clarity to the subject.
Here is a typical case. Some one in my unit, which was a training unit, would get a notice to investigate a report of physical abuse. They were given an address and some names and an allegation. Off they would go. In my unit that was likely to be a 22 or 23 year old woman who had just finished her degree and she was now headed, alone and unarmed, into one of the projects of South Central L.A. (and some of those projects, the police won't go into without 2 cars and they stop to put on vests before going in). She would be talking to a mother, often addicted to crack or meth and the hostile 'boyfriend' trying to tell them (if the evidence of abuse was substantiated) that she would have to remove the child. (Say, for example the mother had pulled the 3 year old boy's penis with a pair of pliers to get him to quit wetting the bed.) This would be one of about 40 to 50 cases she would work actively for 18 months.
I took a little 6 year old girl out of a house where she was regularly being beaten - harshly - and burned with cigarettes. She was terrified of being taken from the only home she knew. I was holding her hand and we were walking down the sidewalk to my car. She looked up at me and I'll never forget the way it tore at my heart to hear her say, in this sad, little voice, "Can't I stay with my mommy. I promise I won't be bad again."
You asked "What do you do when the cure is as bad as or worse than the disease?" How about first admitting that there is a 'disease', i.e., problem. Second, how about not making off-the-point remarks that give no real answers and just insult the good people that are trying. Third, make a proposal designed to help.
p.s., all most everyone of the hundreds of abusers I encountered had two things in common. They started off in government schools and then shifted to being 'unschooled'. Joseph's remarks about 'unparented' were priceless.
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