Tuesday, July 29, 2008

High School Drop Out Rates

There is much distress amongst the educational community in regards to the high school drop out rates, especially here in California. According to statistics (if you believe them) some 20% of students drop out of high school. There are lots of theories as to why students are dropping out, but here's mine: Students are rebelling against the bullshit that is being crammed down their throats. They are rebelling against the beauracratic, paper-heavy, form filling, report writing, meaningless crap that is being flung at them.

We are failing THEM, they're not failing US. They HATE school, and can you blame them? We treat our teens like maximum security prisoners with no rights. We tell them exactly what to do at every given moment over-orchestrating their lives and their schedules, and then we wonder why in the hell they can't think for themselves once they graduate!

Well, I guess they are thinking to some extent -- there's more to life than sitting in a boring classroom listening to some over-tenured-ready-to-retire-bitter teacher blathering on with information that will never be useful.

No comments: