Show W nN e A i iSI SI io f g r J IES 5 k 0 1 Y tw R JR Reductio ad absurdum is an ancient Latin phrase which translates roughly into Just how nuts can you possibly get And this Is the question con con- concerning some of the chief chief- chieftains In the war on poverty that responsible educators In New York 4 r City are askAs ask ask- J Ing i t i 1 As a facet r of this effort a to combat poverty and afford educational 1 funds available to pro proving v 1 n g c W Harder youngsters in school with work at a wage rate of per hour The jobs are working in inthe inthe the library doing clerical work other tasks The school school people were asked t to cooperate In this program t to the extent of helping select the students to till fill these Jobs The original Intent was to se- se select select lect students of promise abil- abil abilIty ability Ity and diligence but who due to unfortunate financial background might not be beable beable able to continue In school with with- without without out some aid of this nature And while the merit and de de- de demerits merits of such a program can be debated it is also necessary to take in to consideration the factors surrounding a willing youngster in New York City under present circumstances While a generation or so ago such youngsters with ambition could often make malee their way through school without any governmental program being setup set today due to restrictions imposed by unions as n 1 or of nt e well as misapplications of the original intent of child labor laws the doors of opportunity are closed nut regardless of the merits or lack of merit In such a program many good young young- youngsters youngsters were being aided and andI I presumably in time society would be rewarded by the development de- de development of better citizens 5 However now the war on poverty chiefs think they have proceeded wrongly and it is not the deserving that should be helped but the drop outs and the juvenile delinquents On this basis they have lIa ve been pressuring the school people to fire the youngsters now holding the Jobs and give them to dropouts drop louts outs as a means of them to come back to ling school or t to problem delinquent delin- delin delinquent quent youngsters as a bribe to toI I try and Influence them to stay I on the beam I Thus the doctrine is being espoused to penalize the wor wor- worthy thy and reward the goof ups 5 This Is a strange viewpoint and probably could only be dreamed up by a bureaucrat 5 If this sort o of reasoning is allowed to continue it will be interesting to see how far it goes and how muCh it affects the future of American life 5 What for example would bethe be bethe the result if this type of think think- Ing becomes entrenched In the officialdom of baseball It Is easy to Imagine umpires then calling all foul balls home runs especially those that go Into the stands along the left field |