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?

Comments

Re:You get what you wanted all along

[Anonymous Coward]

My, my. With my eye... I do spy some conservative talking points! Let's translate:

- Many parents expect the schools to fix their poor parenting skills

Nigger single mothers.

- Disruptive students cannot be easily removed from an otherwise productive classroom

Stupid niggers

- Suing the schools for any perceived slight (such as having a dress code dictating no long hair or earrings for males)

Niggers wanna wear baggy clothes and gang colors

- Basing school budgets on how many children can get federal handouts via school lunch programs

Lazy niggers on the dole

Re:You get what you wanted all along

[Doom bucket]

I was in my high school's special education program for a year. The only problem is, it was just as broken if not more than the "regular school" classes I had taken before. I was raped when I was seven and I also have severe depression which is not related, and have attempted suicide more than a few times. Becuase of this and classic government beucucracy(can't spell it) I was placed in the same classroom as kids with real learning disabilities. This wasn't fair or efficient as my emotional needs usually culminate either outside of school when alone, or in the classroom being teased by peers. So in effect, they actually made me feel worthless and many more people picked on me as a result. Meanwhile I actually did worse in "special classes" then in the classes I was in before. So they transferred me to a specialised school, a school supposably designed for "emotional needs" students. It costs the school more than six times what it would have cost to have just placed me in a regular high school class. Meanwhile, the place I was sent to was run by a private hospital which was owned by muslimic people, who apparently insisted on a very islamic cirriculum(the code of conduct was a revised version of the Five Pillars of Islam). This made my parents very upset since they felt it was basically the Guatenomo Bay version of Church and State, and the school avoided the issue by claiming "well we don't provide the curriculim", even though they wouldn't let me retransfer schools and claim my own education! So now it's senior year and I've had doctors study me and declare me mentally stable, and that I don't have "clinical" depression, only depression caused by being raped. And this suddenly changed the schools mind since the program is needs based so they suddenly placed me back in regular school classes. Since it was five years since being in regular school I did not adjust well and in fact failed every class first semester, and many of the students I had not seen since middle school shunned me thinking me retarded or dangerous. I saw many other students in the special classes who seemed to do well. But these students always seemed to be like bug-eyed people from 1984(Yes I try to read books) And if I seem to be untelligent through my writing would you say a black man denied of opportunities is stupid?

Re:This is disingenuous Media spin

[ultranova]

My personal opinion is that there's few things more worthwhile to do with your money than experiencing the incredible variation that this world has to offer.

Or you could exchange this world for those beyond, by buying a good book, comic or movie (manga or anime are especially good for that), and letting this world be led to Hell by its leaders as they're apparently trying to do, since there's not much you can do to stop it. The girls are sexier and wear skimpier clothes, you can't pick up a stomach bug, and there's no chance that some lunatic will capture and kill you due to religious or political fanaticism. Nor will you get hassled by overzealous security measures on the airport, or blown up when those security measures nonetheless fail to capture actual bad guys. On the bad side, you can still suffer from jet lag if you picked a good enough book ;(.

Just offering a cynic's perspective on things...

Re:This is disingenuous Media spin

[The One and Only]

What gives us the right to make those immigration laws? Breaking an unjust law is just.