The Sunday letter, “Law not helping students stay,” states that students usually stop coming to school due to addictions, lack of parental support, and/or poverty. In my opinion, students are being bullied and abused by our public education system which contributes to the students dropping out. There is so much emphasis being placed on the requirement to pass these standardized test to graduate and go to college.
With all the different types of learning styles and individual IQs, the system should offer programs to make all students successful, as opposed to only the academic achievers because they happen to be born with the abilities to tackle math, science and reading with ease. Perhaps if the system acknowledged the students in the hands-on areas, it would empower more hard-working students and widen the field of accomplishments and successes.
The system needs to make a place for all students on the campus they attend to be successful. Everyone has talents. My personal experience with the existing public education system has been brutal to people who learn differently.
Students who are poor and lack parental support, but achieve math and science goals in the eyes of our system seldom drop out. The students who have addiction problems have addiction problems for reasons. Contributing factors include unmanageable amounts of stress. The educating/teaching of our youth to the standardized tests have attributed to this stress in the hands-on students and continually make them feel unsuccessful. Maybe the math and science achievers should be required to design and build a motor to graduate. They are not required to do things outside of their comfort zone on nearly the same level as the hands-on students do every day.
Why does the system have the right to break the spirit of our talented youth? Maybe it’s time the system be held accountable and not blame these individual students, poverty, lack of parental support and addictions for the reasons they do not attend school. Our youth don’t grow up planning to drop out. If they were getting the whole package and made to feel successful at school, they would continue to go regardless of what else was happening in their lives. They don’t quit going to the places that make them feel good and accomplished.
Children want to please. I worked for 30 years at Juvenile and Family Court and in my opinion, they quit going to the painful places where they feel stress and lack success.
Joanne Little
Everett
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