{"id":10468,"date":"2017-07-25T12:15:25","date_gmt":"2017-07-25T16:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/?p=10468"},"modified":"2017-07-25T10:36:33","modified_gmt":"2017-07-25T14:36:33","slug":"ross-douthat-reflects-charlie-gard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2017\/07\/ross-douthat-reflects-charlie-gard.html","title":{"rendered":"Ross Douthat reflects on Charlie Gard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here<\/a>. \u00a0As I said, I understand that people of goodwill can disagree. \u00a0But I still fall on the side of the parents, not the State or the Courts or even the established experts, making the final call.<\/p>\n

<\/iframe><\/p>\nThe above film was made known to me during the Terri Schiavo case. \u00a0It\u2019s a powerful, inspiring movie, well worth the watch. \u00a0As for Ross\u2019s article, this part especially struck me:<\/p>\n<blockquote>The second institutional temptation is not toward active wickedness but toward sclerosis, groupthink and stagnation. Establish an iron triangle of doctors, insurers and government boards, tell them they must establish predictable standards for what treatments will be covered, and they will inevitably resist many of the experiments through which medical progress advances.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThat made me think of the event that pushed us into homeschool. \u00a0Granted, compared to the Charlie Gard case, this was peanuts. \u00a0But there was a similarity.<\/p>\nAll of my sons did well in school. \u00a0My second boy, however, was on what they called the \u2018gifted\u2019 track. \u00a0I didn\u2019t care for that label, since I felt the other boys were just as gifted in their own ways.\u00a0Nonetheless, I had to admit our second boy had a little more golly-gee-wiz when it came to school. \u00a0Especially science. \u00a0In fourth grade, he was selected to take a science exam at a local university in which he outscored 78% of high schoolers. \u00a0Science was his darling.<\/p>\nIn 6th grade they had to take another battery of standardized tests. \u00a0These tests determined their upcoming placement in middle school. \u00a0These tests also\u00a0occurred when my Dad died \u2013 the first time my boys had experienced the death of a close relative.\u00a0Despite it all, he made it through. \u00a0He scored a 91 on his math, and ranked\u00a03rd highest on science in a class of almost 500 students.<\/p>\nRegardless of this, he was kicked out of the advanced science track. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Because the metrics for the track required at least a 94 in science and math. \u00a0 To be in the advanced math track, ironically, they only needed a 90 in math. So he qualified for that. \u00a0Because he didn\u2019t make the math requirement for science, however, he was removed from the advanced science course. \u00a0That meant he was wrenched from the path he had taken the previous four years, where he had been with the same students and gotten to know the same friends. \u00a0He was removed from the science program that would take students with an aptitude for science and encourage them through special projects, classes and exposure to higher level scientific learning.<\/p>\nWe fought the good fight, but ultimately met with \u2018it\u2019s the rules.\u2019 \u00a0I met with the State Board of Education, and they explained each school district had to pick its metrics for determining the advanced track qualifications. \u00a0It could be anything, but once picked they had to stick with it. \u00a0I appealed to our local school board, met with teachers, counselors, principles and the superintendent. \u00a0But to no avail. \u00a0They sympathized. \u00a0They admitted he obviously had a gift and a love for science. \u00a0They even conceded that this wasn\u2019t the desired outcome\u00a0for the program. \u00a0But in the end the metrics were the metrics (I came to hate the word \u2018metrics\u2019 during those months).<\/p>\nFinally, at one\u00a0meeting, they offered\u00a0him the chance to retake the tests. \u00a0At that point, however, he got his dander up, as the old timers used to say. \u00a0He asked why, when he was an all A student, when he had aced every other standardized test, and by any standard even did great on these, that the body of his work wasn\u2019t good enough. \u00a0That\u2019s when the head of our\u00a0district\u2019s advanced track program made the fateful, bone-headed statement: \u201cYour grades in class don\u2019t really matter.*\u201d<\/p>\nIf you know our second oldest, you\u2019d predict what happened next. \u00a0Halfway through his seventh grade year, where he once cried over an A-, he was getting low Bs and even Cs. \u00a0When we talked with him about it, you can almost guess his reaction. \u00a0\u201cI\u2019m sorry Dad,\u201d he would say, \u201cdid you say my grades matter? \u00a0I have it on the best authority that nothing I do in school matters. \u00a0It\u2019s only the latest test.\u201d<\/p>\nThat was the primary cause of looking to homeschool. \u00a0We discovered the fatal flaw in government centered solutions, the one flaw that skeptics of goverment always cite. \u00a0Sure, the market has its problems. \u00a0But when you get screwed up in the market, you can always turn to the government for help. \u00a0But when it\u2019s the government \u2013 the State \u2013 that has screwed you up, where do you go? \u00a0And the government is by no means flawless. \u00a0 Just as in our little case, that legendary red tape and bureaucracy can become the be all to end all. \u00a0And if you get steam rolled by it, then where do you turn?<\/p>\nWhen Ross wrote that, this came back to me \u2013 the problem with turning to the State. \u00a0You never have reason to doubt its experts, until you\u2019re the one who the experts fail. \u00a0And when it\u2019s the government\u2019s experts that fail, your options are severely limited. \u00a0In a case like ours, it can lead to life changing decisions. \u00a0In a case like the Gards\u2019, it can mean life itself.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n*She was right about that, but not for reasons she would admit.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here. \u00a0As I said, I understand that people of goodwill can disagree. \u00a0But I still fall on the side of the parents, not the State or the Courts or even the established experts, making the final call. The above film was made known to me during the Terri Schiavo case. \u00a0It\u2019s a powerful, inspiring movie, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,14,27],"tags":[85],"class_list":["post-10468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-of-life","category-musings","category-social-observations","tag-social-observations"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Ross Douthat reflects on Charlie Gard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here. \u00a0As I said, I understand that people of goodwill can disagree. \u00a0But I still fall on the side of the parents, not the State or the Courts or even the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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