A new study is completed and the statistics are in. Nearly 30 percent of our high school students are dropping out, and we have to pin it on somebody. The usual players waste no time placing blame and proposing solutions — but mostly placing blame.
It was the water cooler topic of the week and a colleague of mine simply said, "It is easier to criticize than it is to fix." Well, I have a criticism of my own: We are all to blame, and the main thing we need to fix is our attitude.
Our secondary educational system is designed to prepare students for college. For those who are on that track, it works most of the time. For those who are not on track, we offer remedial courses to get them back on track. If that doesn’t work, we offer remedial remedial courses, and take away their electives. Then we offer advanced courses in seventh-grade math, because after all, they need four semesters of math. When they say high school is a waste of time, we tell them to change their attitudes.
So what’s the problem?
The problem occurs when a student tells us that he wants (or needs) to finish high school and get a job, and we respond by thumbing our noses and provide little or no effective vocational training. I’m not talking about a shop class here or a drafting class there, I’m talking about taking students who have the interest and aptitude to pursue a trade, and spending four years teaching them as much about that trade as possible. Why can’t we do that in this country?
Yes, they need to know the basics, but they don’t need electives that lead to nowhere, or remedial courses that take up time but don’t prepare them for the future. Every time an education budget is cut, vocational training is reduced, resuming its place as the annoying stepchild of education, an afterthought on a good day. We just can’t admit that it is appropriate for some students to not pursue a college education.
I have dealt with this myself recently when my son, a sophomore, announced his intention to pursue auto mechanics instead of computers and college. The feelings of that being a waste crept into my head, and I’m not sure they have crept out yet.
But it seems more than a little disingenuous to be annoyed with my child for pursuing a vocation when two weeks later, kneeling next to my vehicle, I am cursing at the pile of springs and brake drums that I was smart enough to take off my car, but not put back on. With calmness and confidence, my teenager kneels next to me, and slowly picks up the pieces of my mess, puts them back together, and says, "Let’s finish the other side."
Now I don’t need a lecture on the virtues of higher education, I’m already sold. I don’t need to know about it securing your future, providing opportunities or providing a backup plan. I know it, I live it, and I have needed and used the backup plan. But the decision to pursue a college education is a personal one. It is up to the individual to make the sacrifices necessary to go down that road, and it’s not a path intended for all.
So instead of insisting on a system that offers a general education in liberal arts studies to the detriment of everything else, why don’t we focus our attention on really "leaving no child behind," take the students who are interested, and offer an education that matters to them now and prepares them for something other than a McJob four years from now?
As for the people who build our homes, fix our cars, defend our freedom, protect and serve our neighborhoods, and provide life-saving emergency care during house fires and car accidents — I suppose it’s possible that they are not as smart as me, not as educated, and just not as good as I am … but I doubt it.
You may disagree, but the next time your car breaks down, someone tries to break into your house, or you need CPR, make sure the 911 dispatcher only sends college-educated help.
In the meantime, I’m left wondering if all these kids are dropping out, or just dropping us.
Daniel Lee of Everett is a middle school teacher in the Monroe School District.
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