We received an interesting letter a while back from a retired West Virginia educator. In the epistle, the writer explained that he had fought the battle of students dropping out of school for nearly three decades, from 1957 to 1984. Here’s what he had to say on the subject:
Dear Columnist:
I ran across an article in one of the state’s papers recently discussing public schools in the Mountain State. The story highlighted some of the programs currently being touted by West Virginia State Department of Education officials for preventing low achievers from “falling through the cracks” of public schools.
As I read the article, I couldn’t help wondering: are our educators really paying any attention to the many “dropouts” falling through the cracks of the educational floor? It has reached an alarming rate in West Virginia and other states.
One of the fallacies we live by is that all dropouts would be better off in school. This might be true in some cases if they could get some much-needed attention.
Every year about 80,000 teenagers drop out of school. According to the available facts, the reasons are they find the work too difficult or boring, they cannot adjust emotionally to the routine or they must get a job to help at home.
But, regardless of the reason, it has become fashionable to predict that without high school diplomas, they will be “failures.”
This is neither fair to the dropouts, nor is it necessarily true. Certainly, it is no help to tell them they are going to be failures. If they believe it, they will not try. And itcould be that the school failed the student.
Educators have started to take a fresh look at the assumption that dropping out is always bad. In fact, they should take a fresh look at the value of diplomas handed out, in many cases, just to get rid of students.
Many prospective employers must take the value of these documents with a grain of salt and make their own evaluation.
Considering that almost everybody can make a living doing something useful and considering the discouraging impact of simply marking (and wasting) time in the classroom, it seems proper to assume that this time could be used to much better advantage by getting started in some occupation for which the boy (or girl) is suited. The longer it is put off, the greater the loss in self-confidence.
It is only realistic to admit that some boys and girls are destined to hold low-income jobs all their lives, but it must also be admitted that many dropouts have become highly successful despite having to start at a low level. There are many hidden talents waiting to be touched off by exposure to the right situation.
We believe the diploma status symbol to be as phony as the infallibility attributed to intelligence tests based largely upon previous information.
We also believe that high schools should have guidance counselors (and many do) whose job it is to find out which students, for their own good, should drop out and what occupations they should seek.
Finally, we believe that society should remove the “stigma” that is now attached to the drop out process. These classroom “under-achievers” should be made to know that achievement could be waiting for them somewhere else.
Sincerely,
Guy Smith
Jacksonville, Fla.
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A bigger lie…
A preacher saw a group of small boys sitting in a circle with a dog in the middle. He asked what they were doing. One boy said, “We’re just telling lies, and the one that tells the biggest one gets to keep the dog.”
The preacher said, “Why, I’m shocked. When I was a little boy, I never even thought of telling a lie.”
The little boy said, “Give him the dog, fellas. He’s the winner.”
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Top o’ the morning!