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It's a complicated problem. There are no simple answers. For many students the "living large" lifestyle they see on TV appears to be easily obtained without an education or hard work. The reality is often far different but less interesting.
I'm not surprised by the author's findings. I have posed a similar scenario to my math students in talking about percentages, interest, etc. I asked them what they would do if they were offered $100 today or a guaranteed $1000 if they were willing to wait a year? I then asked them how many would be willing to wait 10 years for $100,000 instead (about the time someone would be graduating from college). Not surprisingly, many of the students in the disadvantaged group wanted the $100 now even after being reassured that in this hypothetical scenario there would be no chance they wouldn't receive the guaranteed amount since it was being set aside in an account for them. It's hard to convince someone who perceives their immediate needs are not being met that waiting is better.
These findings are not all that different from how a large part of our population live their lives in the US.
Instant gratification and short sightedness.
Why wait for tomorrow when you can have it today (legal or illegal means)
The punishments these days are very lenient to non existent.
I was watching the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, on the Wall Street Journal Report being interviewed by Maria Bartiromo. They quickly skipped over the home-life component and went right to solving all the problems with student achievement from the teacher/standards aspect. If the underlying social problems are not addressed a large number of the "at-risk" students they are looking to see gains in achievement will not be realized.
Mr. Duncan's comments indicated that he agrees with the influence of many private-sector leaders such as Bill Gates who believe that schools operate very much like businesses and performance can be enhanced by utilizing the appropriate business strategy. I did not find our Secretary of Education's comments providing much hope in truly improving learning in the United States. He misses the mark in my opinion and is more interested in testing, merit pay, and control than developing an educated, motivated, and creative populace.
1. They don't see the value in a HS education.
2. It's more fun to hang out in the park or to stay home and play video games.
3. Drugs.
4. Baby.
5. They've never experienced success at school.
6. They got a part time job and decided work was better than school.
7. You don't need a HS education to succeed in a gang.
8. Their friends told them school wasn't cool.
I totally agree. I was in high school in the mid 1990s. Our drop out rate was the districts lowest at 31%. I think you add the reasons above topped with lack of family support and that is why so many kids drop out. We had alot of families with both parents absent and grandparents were raising grandkids. Several families had multiple adult children in prison and the grandparents had ALOT of children in their house. They failed as parents the first time around and it was even worse the second time around. The kids in gangs dropped out between 5th to 8th grade. The cycle repeats over and over.
I think more and more students dropout because of the teaching and exams pressure.
Do you know kids who have dropped out for these reasons? (kids who don't use any drugs, aren't pregnant, aren't in a gang, aren't otherwise at risk) I'm sure plenty of students have used "the teaching" as an excuse, but generally there is another reason. There have always been some bad teachers in high school, so I don't know why that would be more of a reason now.
The vast majority of students who drop out are not the "good students" and couldn't care less about the exams.
1. They don't see the value in a HS education.
2. It's more fun to hang out in the park or to stay home and play video games.
3. Drugs.
4. Baby.
5. They've never experienced success at school.
6. They got a part time job and decided work was better than school.
7. You don't need a HS education to succeed in a gang.
8. Their friends told them school wasn't cool.
This is a sterile assessment. It's what a lot of people (who don't think deeper into the problem) think are the reasons kids drop out.
A huge part of the problem is the way kids are treated in schools. From an early age, kids are over-managed and are told who, what, where, why and when without ever learning how to reason, solve problems and manage themselves on their own. They are so painfully directed and choreographed all through school that by the time they reach the age they can drop out, they are saturated with all the adults' thoughts and ideas and orders of HOW to be "themselves" and who they SHOULD be, that they feel they need to break free from it all.
Kids don't understand the real world because they are never allowed to experience it in their own right. They believe anything is better than the oppression of school and since they grow up in the world of television, "real" is romanticized. It looks pretty good after the school experience.
Is it really worth spending 4 years, thousands of hours of time, tens of thousands in tuition/books, and potentially going into debt to get the degree?
Students are seeing their other friends graduate and not getting anywhere with their degrees. This is where they start to realize that the rewards aren't as great as promised.
At the end of the day it comes down to this: Is the risk really worth the rewards?
Lets face it, there is no shortage of skilled labor in this country.
Traditional US school system is outdated, and antiquated. Subjects taught have little to do with work, and there is little emphasis on actual life. I especially dislike the new "everyone will take Algebra in 8th grade"...hello, not everyone can even pass math fundamentals...the people who make these programs don't work in a school.
Children should be tracked, I know, everyone hates that idea...but it would help kids who are not academic, and start them out with vocational skills and real training at age 14, if they are not academic, stop trying to make it happen. Not everyone is into sitting in a chair for eight hours, reading a book. I went insane in high school, and basically dropped out, I could not take the petty social scene, and hated the mandatory subjects. I did graduate, by some miracle...I love working, and once I got a job, and then took classes to increase my skills at a job I was interested in, school was no longer a challenge for me.
Is it really worth spending 4 years, thousands of hours of time, tens of thousands in tuition/books, and potentially going into debt to get the degree?
Students are seeing their other friends graduate and not getting anywhere with their degrees. This is where they start to realize that the rewards aren't as great as promised.
At the end of the day it comes down to this: Is the risk really worth the rewards?
Lets face it, there is no shortage of skilled labor in this country.
This thread is about dropping out before finishing HS. Any thoughts about that?
A huge part of the problem is the way kids are treated in schools. From an early age, kids are over-managed and are told who, what, where, why and when without ever learning how to reason, solve problems and manage themselves on their own. They are so painfully directed and choreographed all through school that by the time they reach the age they can drop out, they are saturated with all the adults' thoughts and ideas and orders of HOW to be "themselves" and who they SHOULD be, that they feel they need to break free from it all.
Kids don't understand the real world because they are never allowed to experience it in their own right. They believe anything is better than the oppression of school and since they grow up in the world of television, "real" is romanticized. It looks pretty good after the school experience.
I agree. This is part of the problem. So what would be better? Is secondary education unnecessary? Where should 13-18 year olds be spending their time, if not in school? If they should be in school, what should school be? Homeschool is an answer for some families, but what about the rest?
Most kids are able to deal with school without quitting. Would they be better off if they did quit? Unlike a generation ago, kids who quit aren't likely to be participate in healthy activities, like work. They are sleeping half the day, playing video games, hanging out in the park, using drugs, becoming parents, and learning the welfare system.
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