In the military, police and fire departments standards have been lowered so that women could compete. Is this fair? In fact women are held to a lower standard than men but they get paid the same. Is this fair?
I’m a man and I don’t think it is fair but I think it is right.
When it comes to many jobs most women are at a physical disadvatage. That is an undeniable fact. SHould that physical disadvantage disquallify them from obtain a job that a man is more qualified to do? Is it fair that the bar was lowered for them? AS a man I would say no but it was the humane civilized and right thing to do.
There are those who would not afford us LDers the same decency and humanity that women have come to expect. There are those who will not lower the bar for the percentage of us who are cognitively disabled. Is this fair? as an honest person I would say yes. As a decent human being I would say it is wrong.
I know that women make up over 50% of the population. I know that we make up a considerably smaller percentage. Are our numbers so small that leveling the playing field for us is not that important? Are we less valued than normal women? I think so.
Having male family member in law enforcement I can tell you that in many ways women are not up tp the task required of a peace officer. I can tell you that if there were only female police our society would not be as safe. (Ladies don’t go getting your panties in a bunch) Men are much stronger than women. Is it fair to hire people who are less valuable and pay them the same. As a man I would say no but it is the right thing to do even if it costs society a little.
Get the point?
Re: Leveling the Playing Field
My wife is a health care professional and as such she is required to take tests that measure he competency. We need testing.
I agree that women have political clout but the blind and the deaf also get special consideration. We do not. What we do get is accused of not trying hard enough.
Read some of the recent posts by Sue the webmastress and you will see the attitudes we face.
We are looked at as malingerers. Our difficulties are minimalized. LD kids are misunderstood and jerked around by educators. People who are in a position to help really lack the expertise to do anything but make things worse.
Until the brain is understood better the decent thing to do is to level the playing field.
50% of the world’s population is female. They have the numbers to get things done politically. Most LDers don’t even know they have LD, and most of those who do feel guilty about it. We therefore have zero political power.
I personally do not favor lowering standards. What I do favor is removing artificial barriers. If someone is poor at spelling but can write well with a word processing program, forcing him or her to write without one is an unfair practice. Or what if someone has an excellent understanding of symbolic logic and math, but is terrible at doing arithmetic in their head or on paper? Spreadsheets allow these people to compete with the normals.
One example of the stupidity that our society engages in is in standardized tests. For instance, the GMAT requires students to write an essay without aid of word processing, then penalizes them for spelling errors. I’m definitely glad to know that our business leaders (most with MBAs) know how to spell. Now they just need to learn how to think.