Kids Flee High School In Masses...

[Dubh Aingeal]

ABC News is reporting that High School kids are dropping out of high school in 'epidemic proportions', with an estimated 2,500 kids quitting daily. What's wrong with our school system that so many kids prefer working 40 hours a week instead? How can this be fixed?

[BrassFusion]

ABC News is reporting that High School kids are dropping out of high school in 'epidemic proportions', with an estimated 2,500 kids quitting daily. What's wrong with our school system that so many kids prefer working 40 hours a week instead? How can this be fixed?

It's those damn iPods and video games providing an alternate reality.

Or maybe it's kids realizing that if they can get any job at all before graduating, they'd be fools to waste more time in school. Used to be that you could go to high school till you were 18 and then go to college for four more years and when you leave college, be immediately able to get any retarded job running xerox and coffee around, but it's just not like that anymore.

I had a shot at taking a receptionist position when I was a sophomore in college. It was my sister's job, and they promoted her out of it just a month or so after I temped. They offered it to me, but I turned it down so I could "finish my degree."

Now my sister makes $40k yearly doing 401K shit for the same company and I feel like a total moron. Thanks, economy.

[AstralCrux]

Highschools are nuts nowadays. I was in for a bit just after the Colombine shootings and the retards would call in bomb threats to get a day off. We keep seeing more and more violence in schools. I personally never got too much of that end of the stick, although a petition I'd started in 7th grade won because the guys playing football started attacking the signers and petition holders.

Alot of people used to get upset because they never intended to go to college. Trade school, yes, college no- so many of the classes they had to take didn't apply to them by that point. I heard alot of, "they're wasting our time." Any current students/parents dealing with the MEAP testing years know that the schools waste even more time teaching Standardized Testing Strategy- yeah that'll help me write better reports to my boss A, A, D, C, B sir.

My highschool offered the option to go to beauty school and welding and other "career geared" classes, but then you spend half your day in classes at the highschool wasting time.

I felt I could have and should have been able to hop through highschool much faster, but it's just busywork really. I agree with kids today- waste of time. I could have been in college or a good trade school.

[maeve]

I’m not sure what it is that has put the schools in the condition that they are in today, but I do know that it appears to be very counter-productive to learning. My 16 year old daughter has dropped out (with my permission) recently, this is her story. She always did well in school until about 8th grade. She lost interest in school and her social life became more important. Of course, I think that’s pretty much par for the course with most kids that age, but she went overboard and let school fall by the wayside. The result of this was, naturally, that she fell behind, which most people know in that situation; it becomes ever more difficult to catch back up. Anyway, we ended up moving the following year and that just exasperated the problem. We moved her from a country school to an inner city school, so the environment was a total shock to her. She would come home from school everyday telling me that the teachers won’t help her, that they don’t care, and that they treat her like she’s not only stupid but also like she’s a criminal (she’s a dark teen). She said that not a day went by where someone didn’t threaten to rape her; she made very few friends, and was basically paranoid of everything and everyone there. Her grades fell from C’s and D’s to straight F’s across the board. When I called the school to ask for advice and guidance I was told that “Some children really just don’t belong in school”. I suppose any parent can relate to the feelings I had about that remark. I was beyond furious of course. These are the people who are supposedly educating my children? When I got her report card that was all F’s, for the second semester in a row now; I was even more shocked to find out that even with all those F’s, she was still ranked like 200 and something out of a class of 500 and something. WTF! That’s when I decided to let her drop out, something she wanted to do anyway. I figured she was never going to graduate by the time she was 18 and I certainly don’t want her out in the world with no education, so I made an agreement with her. I told her if I let her drop out, she’s to spend this year studying for her GED and then she must pass it with a score that I say is fitting (high enough so that she can still go to college if she chooses). After she does that, I told her she would be free to look for work. So far things are going well; she’s studying at home on a fairly regular basis. I’ve purchased some study guide books for her and the like and I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I have noticed that since she’s been out of school she’s no longer constantly stressed and she’s much more oriented to the family. I’m thinking I made the right decision. I mean, kids know when they’re not wanted or appreciated and as far as this particular school is concerned, that’s the message they’re sending out to these kids loud and clear.

[Homicidalheathen]

I dropped out cause I was forced to move out of my parents house early and thus had to get a full time job. I got my GED later and enrolled in college. It honestly didn't hurt me any to drop out early. I made as much as I would have anyway.....

However, I want my kids to graduate AND do 4 years (at least) of college.......so far so good.

I want them to do better than me is all......I hope it works.

[Rayne]

I dropped out of high school in February of 1997. I was supposed to graduate in June of 1997, but I fell too far behind and wouldn't graduate until 2000.

I was diagnosed with Numeric Dyslexia in December of 1996. My grades started to pick up after that - and I was working 40 hours a week.

I left school (with my mother's permission) and got my GED in March of 1997. Enrolled in college the next fall and picked up a part time job in addition to my full time job.

I don't regret it. I wish my learning disability would have been picked up before then. I probably had it all my life, but the way they did tests, they took everything and averaged it. My scores were very high in all areas but Math.

I don't have my actual high school diploma -- that hurts me sometimes when people just don't think a GED is good enough.

Now I'm just trying to get back into college.

[Vampyro]

I know that highschool dropouts can't get better than a fast food job now adays, I've had many friends that dropped out and had to turn around and get a GED just to be quallified to compete for jobs. I have to blame the school systems, and parents if I were to blame anyone else but the students themselves. Most public schools have been getting a decrease in budgets, at least here in the Detroit area. I've grown up with video games and they left me with no desire to drop out. What really tempted me to drop out were the other students, and the staff, the students would get worse and worse, and the staff just kept giving less of a fuck, and actually would side with the more popular kids as if they were in highschool themselves. That's the bias that's really making school seem not worth it in my experiences. however I am one that hasn't dropped out and have graduated, and things are extremely tough on me to find a decent job, so really these dropouts, it's like WHAT ARE YOU THINKING STUPID?!?! I see college graduates not able to find employment, what makes you think your record of being a dropout is going to show???

[Soulrev]

Oh well. I can't be one to judge, I dropped out after Freshman year. I was at least smart enough to go get my GED (676 out of 700 score btw). If I could take it back.. I don't know. I would, but then I wouldn't. I wouldn't simply because I have learned a lot from doing so. I would take it back because of what I have learned.

The way I see it now, that's 2,500 more daily opportunities for me to find a better job.

[Hellion]

Yeah going to highschool in the 80's was awsome, even though I hated homework,almost dropped out in 88,but took care of some of the issues and graduated,anyway.Shit I am glad I am out of highschool now,all the violence,shit back in the day we did'nt have to worry about someone wanting to blow up the place or shoot

everyone,, the most we ever did was throw a cherry bomb

down the toilet and detonate the plumbing,LOL!!my have the times changed,for the worse that is,IMO