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You must be a senior citizen. Girls that get pregnant nowadays keep right on going to school.
When I was in high school in the 90's the pregnant girls kept attending school. There were only a few who got pregnant that anyone knew about, but they weren't shunned. They weren't sent off to a special school. It wasn't the 50's!
Some parents take their kids out of public school for their protection since faculty at some schools come down hard on a bullied kid defending his or herself instead of the bully. Sometimes the bully is the teacher.
Knew a farm boy in my class who dropped out. He wasn't dumb, he just had trouble with test. At home he performed soil chemical composition test, measured out the correct amount of chemicals (lime and other nutrients) to treat the soil for particular crops, performed minor animal medicine treatment on his livestock, and many other jobs around the farm. That was his job. How many book smart students can successfully raise food from the soil?
The problem with high school guidance programs is the limited experience of the teachers and counselors. Their life experience is college. So naturally their main focus is college. Principals also push college. Looks good when they can say X % of our students to on to college. Not every student is college material. Some couldbe carpenters, welders, HVAC, plumbers, and many other trade fields that don't require a university degree.
Another issue is street culture. Some are already employed as drug dealers and some want to be the next big rapper. There's also the attacking of students who study hard. In some schools they're just called nerds. But in urban schools, if the student is black, they're physically attacked for "acting white".
When I was in high school in the 90's the pregnant girls kept attending school. There were only a few who got pregnant that anyone knew about, but they weren't shunned. They weren't sent off to a special school. It wasn't the 50's!
Wishful thinking. A significant number don't finish high school let alone college.
"Parenthood is the leading reason that teen girls drop out of school. More than 50% of teen mothers never graduate from high school."
I was subbing in a local high school and was taking attendance. The seating chart had not been updated recently and I was asking about absent students. I asked about one girl and the students said she was on "maternity leave."
I'm not sure why you think the Pennsylvania requirements for the Keystone Exams have been misrepresented. They are intended to be end-of-course assessments. This means many students can take the Algebra I test in 8th or 9th grade. School districts offer biology in 9th grade or 10th grade. It appears school districts will have students take the Keystone lierature exam after either their 9th or 10 grade English course depending on the level of course they take in 9th grade.
The link says nothing about British literature. You made it sound like they'd be tested on it. The literature test is something they take after 10th grade English.
The link says nothing about British literature. You made it sound like they'd be tested on it. The literature test is something they take after 10th grade English.
The literature test covers interpretation and analysis of passages, literary terms, grammar, vocabulary, etc.
British Literature is taught in 12th grade English in all Pennsylvania schools and 12th grade English is required for graduation.
There are currently three Keystone exams but there are plans for additional tests.
In all the actual discussions I've heard with dropouts, including my own conversations working with kids, the most common reason is that they see high school as irrelevant to their current lives or what they see as their likely futures.
Thing is, they were pretty much right.
One big factor is that only about 30% of Americans ever get bachelor's degrees, yet most high schools only offer college prep curriculae. Many kids have already determined they don't want a job requiring college and many aren't ready for a college prep curriculum--so a high school offering the only a college prep curriculum appear to be a waste of their time.
Speaking as a high school drop out, I can tell you that I dropped out because I was a big, fat doo-doo head. It was the same reason that my friends dropped out. I hated school my entire pre-adult life.
In hindsight, I can see that it really was because I had no long-term vision for myself (save for one year when my mother shipped me off to a relative).
My saving grace was that up until 6th grade, I had a great education and was able to go back and recover what I had missed and then carry on with college courses. I still missed a great deal, though, and am embarrassed at times.
Quote:
Originally Posted by slowdude222
Maybe the sterile school environment that turns the 70% off. Lack of vocational courses, teaching to the test, more seat time, block scheduling, tolerance that their is no right or wrong, old burnt out teachers with tenure, no discipline for unruly students, large class sizes, lying to students that they must go to college or else, or charging school fees for sports. Maybe rewarding students who are good at memorizing with good grades should stop ("more speeches less essays"-performance based instead of tests).
Vocational courses would have been my saving grace.
And just stop with the old, burned out, tenured teachers. An overwhelming number teachers go into teaching for the right reasons. As opposed to doctors who have chosen the profession for the money and the prestige. I've had far more lazy doctors than lazy teachers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wevie
Why? My wife and I have been married for a about two years and she decided to go back to college. She got pregnant her senior year. She graduated in December and had our daughter in January.
Really? You don't see the difference between a fifteen (or younger) girl getting pregnant and a married woman in her senior year of college getting pregnant?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ss20ts
The only person I know who quit school did so at 16. She went and got her GED immediately and enrolled in a 4 year college. She graduated roughly the same time she would have finished high school. She took extra classes every semester and summer. She had a full time job working for an equine vet when she finished college. That was what she wanted to do her whole life. Both of her parents have PhD's and are professors. They felt that high school was a compete waste of her time. And in reality it is for most people. I've used very little of the math I learned. Very little of the science. None of the music classes did anything for my life now. PE was such a waste of time.
I'm glad it worked out for your friend, but you realize she was an anomaly, right?
So, would you say you regret taking math beyond what you learned in fourth grade or so?
High school, on a much smaller scale than college, is supposed to turn out well-rounded individuals. And, indeed, they will if the student cares enough to learn.
I am grateful for every class I have ever taken and wish I had taken more. Every single class that I have taken has added to the rich tapestry that is my knowledge base. But more importantly, I am not easily hoodwinked in the things that matter. And I owe that to a solid mathematics and science foundation.
You really need to dial back on this pro evolution theory attitude. If I have to show you why, then here is an example of a reply done by reflex;
Example: "Have you any understanding of reading? The OP is about addressing the teenager that has been made upset about the evolution theory in having some kind of "What is the point of living?" outlook on life that they do not care to do well in school or in anything.
Trying to prove the evolution theory to a child that has been made upset by it is NOT GOING to HELP!!!!
Hence the quick common sense response to settle the matter so that the kid is NOT UPSET any more!!!
Or you can take the long route of trying to prove to the child that regardless of the evolution theory being true ( in your eye ) he or she can still find life worth living. ( Good luck with that one; maybe pointing out bullying in school in getting with the program of how life is with natural selection will help the child enjoy it more by seeing the advantages of how bullying can increase his or her chances in life in getting that pretty girl or handsome guy, that special recommendation by a teacher; that spot in a play; that job to help pay for a car and college by making the weak commit suicide ) "
End of example; That kind of a response makes it no better than your reponse; now does it?
So you missed the whole point of the OP and started your post off with berating my intelligence. You went off on a rant about how evolution theory is a fact and a work in progress when you should have addressed how you would handle the situation with a child being upset about the evolution theory.
So the rest of your post is not applicable towards the discussion, now is it?
Quote:
Evolution is both a fact and a theory, but a theory in science is NOT a guess or hypothesis, but a well-supported explanation for scientific observations. Theories don't ever turn into laws because laws are descriptions while theories are explanations. The fact of evolution is the changes that have been observed (genetic change over generations). The theory of evolution is that natural selection is the best explanation for the fact that change occurs.
Honestly, humans don't evolve *ourselves.* That's a silly idea. We may actually be able to genetically modify ourselves, but that would not be evolution. Note that humans can selectively breed many animals and plants and already do that. That is an example of artificial selection, not evolution. In humans, this is called eugenics and is commonly frowned upon given the experiments that were used by the German third Reich.
The "silly idea" was given to deal with a child that does not want to believe that the evolution theory is true. It was to prove the point by common sense that science does not know what causes macro evolution to occur and therefore cannot prove it; if it was true, they would know what causes macro evolution to occur and it is common sense that instead of waiting for random chance to bring it about, mankind can speed it along with intelligent assistance to the evolution process of makind.
Hence by this silly but yet common sense conclusion, the child need not be concern about the evolution theory being true at all. It is nothing more but an atheistic belief running amok in science in how they present the evidence from their atheistic point of view only as a fact when it has not been proven at all.
So take a step back from the soap box about how the evolution theory is true because the child believes it is true; How would you address the poor outlook on life ( I would suspect the after life being moot is the cause for how to live presently but it could be some other thing that the child is upset about which is why I would just denounce the evolution theory as being true at all by common sense alone ).
Please note that being upset about the evolution theory is only one of the causes for why a child "may" be doing poorly in school; it is not the cause, but "might" be one of the causes that parents should be prepare for in dealing with.
Atheists need to recognize that some people need to believe in God; that they are going to be held accountable; that they need a reason to be good because they have all of these negative thoughts and provocations in the world that tempts them to do evil; and even to exploit the weak around them. For an atheist to go out of their way to remove that belief in God from someone, it is to remove all restraint and just live life to the fullest by giving in to every impulse even if it be at the expense of another's life.
And if grown people are like that, then children are too. Some children need that belief in God or the after life, especially when losing a loved one and the thought of never seeing them again is a pain that some cannot bear and thus mayhap a root motivation for defying parents and authority and any one else in life. The ole" "We eat, work, party, and die" motto is just not going to work for them.
It would be interesting to see how you would deal with it, but I reckon every child being upset about it would have a different reason for being upset about it and so expecting a general response in getting around the fact that the child believes the evolution theory to be true without denouncing the evolution theory would be interesting to see, because I cannot fathom any other way of dealing with it when the evolution theory is upsetting the child.
FYI; nobody's perfect; even the evolution theory supports that point of view, and so your intelligence and my intelligence is not the issue here at all.
Your preposterous notion that evolution is somehow incompatible with religion per se is just silly. There is no necessary incompatibility (ask the Pope and many other religious leaders). Extremists who set up an imaginary battle between the two with their own minority doctrines - run into trouble of course. But they are adults and have to live with the ridiculous beds of their own making.
The rest of your post, that a child taught evolution... or plate tectonics, atomic theory, gravitational theory or anything other scientific understanding is somehow upsetting the child (why - what are the parents telling the child??) is unbelievable or laughable - I can't decide which.
Plus your red herring of "macro" evolution.. Just grow up already. Please.
What has evolution (an explanation for the diversity of life) got to do with non-existence of God? Do you declare to know God's tools for shaping his creations? Or his mind? Do you declare evolution, an incredible process but also an inevitable result of imperfect DNA replication (really - it cannot fail to happen when genetic reproduction results in occasional mismatches) is not one of God's amazing gifts? How so??
What has evolution got to do with the first appearance of life? Nothing.
What has evolution go to do with the existence or not of an afterlife? Nothing.
Look at home for this kids problems. And look in thought process for yours.
You really need to dial back on this pro evolution theory attitude. If I have to show you why, then here is an example of a reply done by reflex;
Example: "Have you any understanding of reading? The OP is about addressing the teenager that has been made upset about the evolution theory in having some kind of "What is the point of living?" outlook on life that they do not care to do well in school or in anything.
Trying to prove the evolution theory to a child that has been made upset by it is NOT GOING to HELP!!!!
Hence the quick common sense response to settle the matter so that the kid is NOT UPSET any more!!!
Or you can take the long route of trying to prove to the child that regardless of the evolution theory being true ( in your eye ) he or she can still find life worth living. ( Good luck with that one; maybe pointing out bullying in school in getting with the program of how life is with natural selection will help the child enjoy it more by seeing the advantages of how bullying can increase his or her chances in life in getting that pretty girl or handsome guy, that special recommendation by a teacher; that spot in a play; that job to help pay for a car and college by making the weak commit suicide ) "
End of example; That kind of a response makes it no better than your reponse; now does it?
So you missed the whole point of the OP and started your post off with berating my intelligence. You went off on a rant about how evolution theory is a fact and a work in progress when you should have addressed how you would handle the situation with a child being upset about the evolution theory.
So the rest of your post is not applicable towards the discussion, now is it?
The "silly idea" was given to deal with a child that does not want to believe that the evolution theory is true. It was to prove the point by common sense that science does not know what causes macro evolution to occur and therefore cannot prove it; if it was true, they would know what causes macro evolution to occur and it is common sense that instead of waiting for random chance to bring it about, mankind can speed it along with intelligent assistance to the evolution process of makind.
Hence by this silly but yet common sense conclusion, the child need not be concern about the evolution theory being true at all. It is nothing more but an atheistic belief running amok in science in how they present the evidence from their atheistic point of view only as a fact when it has not been proven at all.
So take a step back from the soap box about how the evolution theory is true because the child believes it is true; How would you address the poor outlook on life ( I would suspect the after life being moot is the cause for how to live presently but it could be some other thing that the child is upset about which is why I would just denounce the evolution theory as being true at all by common sense alone ).
Please note that being upset about the evolution theory is only one of the causes for why a child "may" be doing poorly in school; it is not the cause, but "might" be one of the causes that parents should be prepare for in dealing with.
Atheists need to recognize that some people need to believe in God; that they are going to be held accountable; that they need a reason to be good because they have all of these negative thoughts and provocations in the world that tempts them to do evil; and even to exploit the weak around them. For an atheist to go out of their way to remove that belief in God from someone, it is to remove all restraint and just live life to the fullest by giving in to every impulse even if it be at the expense of another's life.
And if grown people are like that, then children are too. Some children need that belief in God or the after life, especially when losing a loved one and the thought of never seeing them again is a pain that some cannot bear and thus mayhap a root motivation for defying parents and authority and any one else in life. The ole" "We eat, work, party, and die" motto is just not going to work for them.
It would be interesting to see how you would deal with it, but I reckon every child being upset about it would have a different reason for being upset about it and so expecting a general response in getting around the fact that the child believes the evolution theory to be true without denouncing the evolution theory would be interesting to see, because I cannot fathom any other way of dealing with it when the evolution theory is upsetting the child.
FYI; nobody's perfect; even the evolution theory supports that point of view, and so your intelligence and my intelligence is not the issue here at all.
BTW I hope you have a Merry Christmas.
Wow. I never really understood this before. So people who think this way must believe that everyone else is as inherently wicked as they are and therefore must also be controlled so that they will not give in to their evil temptations. No wonder people prefer Paul to Jesus. They can't just be good--they have to be made to be good. Thank you for the revelation.
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