In a distasteful follow up to my recent post about putting a price on life, educators in New York USA are struggling to fund autism appropriate education.
Its a nasty sordid money grubbing business and made even worse by the contribution of one Gil Eyal who says:
The crux of the matter is that we need to have a public debate about how much are we willing to invest in making individuals who are disabled, and sometimes profoundly disabled, have a meaningful level of membership in society.
Nice. Real nice. Now this is very close to ‘useless eaters‘ talk.
Mr Eyal clearly implies that those who require a higher degree of investment should have their educational needs debated – one assumes without their input as usual – as regards a meaningful level of contribution.
Eyal also implies that without official education one cannot in fact _have_ a meaningful level of participation in society and would have little to contribute.
I’d like to suggest to Mr Eyal in the strongest possible terms that what constitutes a meaningful contribution to society is not solely found in a classroom, although that plays a part. I’d also like to suggest to Mr Eyal that it is a measure of a societies worth as to what they are prepared to invest in more than just monetary terms, but in time, in humanity and in general human kindness.
I intend to forward these thoughts to Mr Eyal via his email address which is ge2027@columbia.edu if you wish to contact Mr Eyal yourself I would hope that you do so calmly, politely and as reasonably as you can.
Left Brain Right Brain 
Perhaps we need to have a public debate over the need to provide public support to Columbia University sociologists.