Affirming for Real

(This is another of those
"deep" ideas I get while
taking a shower.)   

A thought about affirmative action --

If you want people to be productive, you want them to produce things of value. If you want people to produce things of value you have to believe that they can produce things of value.

If you want to believe that people can produce things of value, you must believe that they have value -- intrinsic value.

But if you don't show that belief in your actions, you are essentially refusing to believe the thing you want to believe.

But affirmative action seems to put unqualified people in positions they aren't qualified for.

Wait. I said "not qualified" twice. Let's take one of those away.

But affirmative action puts people in positions they are not qualified for.

You get why I made those changes, don't you?

How do we demonstrate our belief in people without putting them in positions they aren't yet qualified for?

"... aren't _yet_ qualified ..."

It's impossible to get qualified without experience, and it's impossible to get experience without being in a position you aren't qualified for.

So what do we do to reduce the damage unqualified people do while they are getting experience and getting qualified?

How about letting the people who are qualified stick around?

Not so close as to prevent the new guy on the job from learning things the hard way (which is the only way to get experience), but not so far away that when the inevitable troubles ensue they can't help.

This is what seems to me to be missing in our current efforts at affirmative action.