Volunteer shares experience
In response to the story focused on euthanasia, I’ve been with a humane society for a few years now and on its board of directors for a couple of them. This has allowed me to experience many shelters and situations. While the article brought up a number of key points of animal shelter life, it neglects a few.I’ve seen the shelters with the 90 percent kill rate that have to put dogs down for space because it’s necessary to keep dog-fighting members as “evidence.” I’ve seen the majority of shelters managed by a government employee who cares nothing about animals. But this isn’t a uniform situation. Some of these shelters can do nothing about it.
I’ve also seen shelters and rescue groups do amazing things. Whether it’s no kill rescues or even shelters in the north having animals shipped to them from high-kill areas because they have none up for adoption. There’s one thing every one of them has in common: volunteers.It’s surprising four hours a semester is all that’s required in a club of veterinarians based on shelter rescue. The same goes for those who have rescued an animal and claim you’re God’s gift to animal rescue because you saved it from some horrible environment. While true, I encourage all to volunteer before judging the management of a shelter or rescue group. While not everybody can handle such an experience as it can be very emotional, it can also be amazing, even if it’s just four hours a semester.Stephen Treeseanimal sciences senior
 
Forced success is socialismWe can change the ownership of schools all we want, but until we change our collective mindset, things will get worse. We pride ourselves on capialism, yet our schools operate on socialist beliefs. Should we set every child up for success, yes. Should we make every child succeed, no!School systems are pushing right now for every child to be successful (thank you No Child Left Behind). If a child doesn’t turn in their assignments, it’s ok, grade them on what they have turned in. If they’re uncomfortable taking a written quiz, give them a verbal one. If they consistently misbehave, reward them the first time they behave, even if the person next to them behaves all the time. Are we really teaching them how to succeed or are we forcing success upon them? The saying goes, “If you give a man a fish he’ll eat for a day. If you teach a man to fish he’ll eat for a lifetime.”  With this forced success plan, we’re not teaching our children to fish. Instead, we’re teaching them if they stand in one place long enough, someone will fish for them.We’re creating a breed of lazy human beings. There are people that are third generation welfare recipients. No wonder these kids don’t try, they were taught all their lives to sit around and collect a check. If they want more money, all they have to do is pop out another kid. If that kid needs to pay class fees, tough luck, but, “check out my new iPhone.”We need to challenge these kids. If we expect a 10 but get a five, isn’t that better than expecting a two and getting a two? Not every child is going to succeed. Some will rise to the challenge. Some will fall to the wayside. The successful will have earned it and will feel good about it. The failures are the ones we forced success upon. Not everyone is college material. Those burgers won’t flip themselves. After all, do you really want one of those who didn’t do their assignments operating on your heart?Chris Pyfrommusic eduation alumnus