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What's the Problem With US High Schools?
GrumpySimon asks: "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 seems to be an America truism that "things get better after High School," and it wouldn't be surprising if most of you readers feel the same way. However, why does it have to be this way? What's the big problem with American High Schools where more and more children are feeling that it's better to risk the "real world" than to continue on with their education? Of course, another question that should be asked is: Is High School really the problem, or is it America's Educational system as a whole?
The #1 problem? RELIGION! Keep superstition out of schools and get back to teaching what's real: reading, writing, math, science.
The article makes it sound like a HS diploma is some kind of magical shield against societal problems:
Dropouts are more likely to face poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Typically high school dropouts earn $19,000 a year. High school graduates earn $28,000 a year on average.
If you drop out of high school, your chances of running afoul of the law increase.
and others...
But correlation != causation. Being a tool who is likely to run afoul of the law is correlated to lack of a high school diploma, not the other way around. Capability and drive and good judgement are correlated with success, and also with surviving high school.
It upsets me when people play fast and loose with logic like this. The solution is to cure societal ills, not to encourage people to finish high school. If there were a mechanism in place to teach kids good judgement and drive, we'd end up improving graduation rates AND poverty rates, recidivism rates, drug use, violent crime, etc. Encouraging tools to finish high school will only increase the number of tools with HS diplomas.
A: Americans
* Game Over * High Score: 264,846,927 -- Your Score: 14
Sick of reading and hearing about how crappy American schools are???
When my 11YO (8 at the time) came home from her crappy NW Shit-cago suburb school a few years ago
and asked me why her teacher spelled Colorado C-O-L-O-R-O-D-O and why she pronounced
tombstone as "tom-stone" - I gave up all my illusions.
My tax dollars are being used to directly communicate with ILLEGALS, not to teach children to think for themselves!
My baby is 1/2 Cherokee and is MISTAKEN for a Mexican EVERYWHERE I take her.
The grocery store, some fat-ass always asks me "what is she?" SHE'S A LITTLE GIRL FUCKWAD
At Subway on Milwaukee and Dundee (68) we get "Que pasa?" I'm white heavy metal with long hair and glasses you fucking SHEEPLE.
Funny how I have to show a birth certificate to get a driver's license but any illegal gets IN-STATE tuition.
Our schools are turning out nothing but MTV wanna-bees on YOUR dime. All show, no go.
I wish I could visit a foreign country (I've never stepped foot on an airplane), however I'd rather starve myself
to own a house than be forced to fund an invasion (through health and auto insurance) of MY country.
Back to your statement - I'm willing to bet your average Japanese student is pretty much the same as the average
AMERICAN student - unfortunately half the students I observe are barely 1 generation from living on a dirt floor
and making a living from stealing.