Friday, January 15, 2010

David Brooks, Columnist - The Underlying Tragedy - NYTimes.com

"...it’s time to promote locally led paternalism. In this country, we first tried to tackle poverty by throwing money at it, just as we did abroad. Then we tried microcommunity efforts, just as we did abroad. But the programs that really work involve intrusive paternalism.

These programs, like the Harlem Children’s Zone and the No Excuses schools, are led by people who figure they don’t understand all the factors that have contributed to poverty, but they don’t care. They are going to replace parts of the local culture with a highly demanding, highly intensive culture of achievement — involving everything from new child-rearing practices to stricter schools to better job performance."

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html (sent via Shareaholic)

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