If you stop to think about it, how many of us think it is not a smart idea to drop out of high school? I am guessing that more than half of us would say, “No, it is not a good idea to drop out” and I am making that guess based on a survey I did. I asked people if they had thought about dropping out or if they thought it was a good idea. I didn’t get a single person to say yes it’s a good idea or that they even thought about dropping out. Some people say that we shouldn’t spend the money or the time on high school drop outs to help them learn to read better so they can qualify for better jobs, but I say that it is most definitely worth our time. I will prove that we should put forth more effort in helping people getting educated.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has done the research over the last few years on at what age do most students start using hard drugs or alcohol or both and that the rates have increased over the last few years. With alcoholism being the highest drug used with a whopping 71% of 12th graders, high school students are using alcohol on a regular basis.(NIDA ) This means that seven out of every ten students are using alcohol in some way shape and form. I have been able to see this for myself. What I have heard from other people is that a lot of people drink to try and get away from the real world, whatever may be happening in it. They just found the easiest way out of having to deal with it. This does not mention the many other things that are out there that kids are starting to use more and more these days but alcohol is still one the biggest because it’s the easiest to come by. There is also teen pregnancy, kid's home lives, gangs, and I am sure others. Alcohol is one of the biggest reasons. We need to somehow make it much harder for younger people to get their hands on alcohol among the many other things but, we need to start with the drinking issue first. By getting students to not try alcohol or drugs and to not have sex tell their older will help with the dropout rates; therefore we can get more students educated. I do understand that you can drop out of school and still make it. Jim Carry, an actor, is doing very well for himself. The lead singer from Yellow Card dropped out and he makes good money. I understand also that there are some who say that it is not worth our time or money to try and even help people who choose the life that they now have. I have met a few people who have said, “It is that persons own fault that they are in the situation that they are in.” A lot of people look down on people who are drop outs and are on welfare or who are getting help from the government. All too often have I heard someone say very aggressively under their breath, “They wish the government would pay for them to sit at home.” When in fact, a lot of people want to change how they are living, but can’t because of a simple decision that they made for themselves back when they were younger. I understand they made that choice. I don’t agree with the choice. I most certainly do not agree with branding them as worthless human beings who don’t have a shot at a good life or think of them as “stupid” people. It breaks my heart to see someone who wants a better life for themselves and can’t help themselves not to get help from us who are more than able to help out.
I am most certainly not saying that we should give them a hand out by any means, but we should be willing to help if needed. Also, we could come up with the ways for people who have dropped out of high school to return to school and get a good education. If we were able to even cut the dropout rate in half in a lot of states that would lessen the debt those states have by enabling these people to be more productive and pay more in taxes. Alliance for Excellent Education has put the work in to finding out how many kids actually dropout. More than a million students who begin their freshman year of high school do not graduate within the next four years. They state, “In fact, about seven thousand students drop out every school day.”(pg 1) (That is about every twenty sex seconds a kid drops out of high school.) Can you even imagine what it would look like to watch seven thousand students just up and leave a school? I came from a very small town where there was only about one hundred and seventy students total in my entire high school. I knew everyone’s name. I pretty much knew their life story and where they lived. I can’t fathom what it would even look like to see seven thousand students walk away from school. 
Yet, more often than not, it ends up with people not making it. According to the U.S. Government, for the over a million students who drop out, they lose over $325 billion dollars over their life time. This means that the students who drop out are missing out on a chance to succeed, which increases our taxes to help for their medical bills among other things. Because, “In 2004, the Census Bureau released data showing that the average annual earnings of persons with a high school diploma was $27,915, compared to only $18,734 for those who failed to finish high school. The average annual earnings for those with a Bachelors degree was $51,206, and $74,602 for persons holding advanced college degrees.”(Longley) We can easily see that those who were not able to graduate make about ten thousand less than those who did. Therefore, since they’re not able to qualify for higher wages, our taxes are used to assist them. Some may say isn’t that good enough by helping them out with taxes? I say that we should not be satisfied with that. We should want everyone to have a better life. A lot of the people who dropped out can’t even really read, so they can’t make educated decisions on things in life whether it is of how to vote or when they sign a contract. If we were able to cut drop rates in half it would generate over 34 million dollars in additional annual revenues for states. This would make everyone’s taxes go down and help us get out of the debt crisis we are in.
Have you ever had a friend that you cared dearly for? Imagine that friend. Do you have that friend’s face vividly in your mind? Think about that friend, all the good times you’ve had with them; the adventures that you went on together. Think of all the hard times that the two of you faced and the success you had together. Now as I relay this true story to you think of how you would feel about your friend. It’s your sophomore year of high school. Everyone knew that the two of you did everything together: football, basketball and track. The first little bit of that year you two are doing great having a lot of fun, doing well in school. Succeeding in academically and athletically, it seemed like you two could handle to world. Nothing was going to get in your way of your dreams together; they were in your reach. Well, as the year continues on you notice that you friend is not doing that well in school anymore. They are starting to slack off in their sports as well. The two of you do not spend as much time together as you use too. You talk to your parents about it and ask whether you should really start to worry about them because they won’t open up to you. They start hiding more and more things from you. Until finally one day, you do not see them at school and you learn they dropped out of school.
Well, that is what happened to me with my friend Sam Bullock (name has been change for privacy reasons). The reason why he eventually dropped out was because he got into drugs and alcohol. He started “using” and drinking and still does it somewhat today. I don’t believe that he has learned yet how this has affected his life. He implied, “It was so he could feel like he fit in; to be a part of the ‘cool crowd’ to feel accepted by the others on the sports teams.” He also very frankly described his desires to get away from it, “I know I should give this up. I should change my life, yet I don’t want to give up my friends that I have made here.”(Interview Bullock) It is those so called new friends he has made that are holding him back. This brings me to my idea of somehow nipping this drugs and alcohol issue in the butt so that we can have fewer students dropping out.
Some may be thinking that it will be nearly impossible in some places because to stop students from dropping out, because of the many different things out there like the drugs, alcohol, and gangs. It makes me think about how could we possibly get the gangs smaller and to have less of an effect on the younger generations. I came across an article by Victor M. Rios who works at the University of California, Santa Barbra. He studied the Latino youth and worked very hard with one student whose name is Luis. He found Luis out front of a liquor store with seven other friends who had dropped out. After Mr. Rios worked with them a while, Luis decided to go back to school. A local community college had a program to help out with that. Luis was doing great until he decided to drop out again. It was because he didn’t know how to type. So when Rios went back to check on him and ask why he dropped out. Luis stated “Yeah, you know, but I can’t write. They tried to make me write on the computer tu sabes [you know]? And I am not good at that stuff. I only type with these two fingers.” (pg201) Luis showed him his two index fingers. Now, Rios was a little bummed by this because he thought that there was a really good chance that Luis was going to stick with it to help be an example to others who are in gangs. He hoped Luis would show the gang members that they can return to school and improve their current life style of living on the street and stop being a menace to society,
Well, at least we got him to go from one frame of thinking to another. We have been working with him for almost two years and when we met him he was completely uninterested in school or work. The first time I met him he told me ‘Can’t stop, won’t stop, ‘till the casket drop!’’ when I asked him if he was ‘‘putting in work’’ [active in the gang]. Within a few months of meeting with us once a week he told us that he was ready to go back to school. (pg201)
This example shows that it is possible to change some people’s lives they just need a little help and encouragement. Rios concludes that even though it didn’t work out the way that we might want all the time that it’s a great start to being able to help change people’s lives and get them to the point of a higher education.
A school district in Colorado is trying to accomplish the same goal but in a different way. Instead of getting them back into the schools, they are trying to keep them in. They are taking it to a whole other level. They are making more people be responsible, they have seven factors that they can up with to have a better future for their students now. Martha Abele Maclver and Scott Groginsky went and studied what it is that they do in Colorado. It involves leadership, focusing on the data, breaking it down level by level. They have steps they take to help make sure students do not drop out. Maclver and Groginsky made a big point of “Dropouts in each of the five districts displayed behavioral warning signs (the ABCs of poor attendance, behavior problems, and course failure) several years before they dropped out.” This means they start looking at students while they are young and are trying to figure out those who are in charge who should take great care and keep a closer eye on those students as they make it up the ranks of school. Colorado has one of the lower dropout rates at about 30% a year of the students who do not graduate. Their goal is that within the next ten years to cut that in half to where 15% more students graduate. (pg 17) Which is a really great idea getting more people to be accountable is one the best ways to get things the way they should. First off, it gives the person who is held accountable the feeling like what they do matters and that there is going to be someone there that won’t let them slack off even when times get tough. The purpose of going to school and everything is to make sure everyone can be able to read, and, in today’s world, how to use a computer. Then those of us who have that knowledge and are not trying to doing anything to help improve the other people’s lives look cold hearted. None of us really want to appear like that in that world. That could very well mean that we make it to where some students just don’t have jobs during their younger years!
Speaking of those younger years, I also had the great pleasure of interviewing a teacher named Cherry Florence. She has her Masters Degree in English and has been teaching that for quite some time. She is now an assistant principal at a middle school. She use to teach at a youth correction facility. This facility was put in place for those who would get in trouble with the law during their younger years, whether it was for sexual offenses, drugs, stealing, or being a part of gangs. Most of them are or were high school drop outs. They were sent to this youth facility for committing delinquent acts that didn’t demand them to do some serious hard time like for murder. They were still enrolled in school and they also had to take many other classes depending on what they did. If they are a drug offender, they are required to attend a drug class. There is a class for those who commit sexual offenses. Mrs. Florence was very passionate when she said, “The teachers that work here usually never leave, they just love being here and being a part of helping these kids change.” She also said, “The only reason I left was so I could be closer with my kids, who I now teach.” (Interview) The kids are usually there only for about six months sometimes but they still on average get about six kids to graduate with their diploma with every group that comes through. They have about three hundred students at a time. They get rewarded for good behavior. The students get to play sports like basketball, softball and baseball against the local schools. The facility officials reward them for good behavior while trying to help them see the better sides of life. If you think about it, if we could possibly get Colorado’s idea to work out fantastically then we would be able to catch potential dropouts at younger age before a kid would try and do something they shouldn’t. This would help to keep the students from dropping out and that they actually become more successful in their own lives. Also so that we wouldn’t have as many as we do in the correction facilities.
I have a wonderful success story which is not yet complete, but is well on its way. I have another friend who dropped out of high school. It was not because of drugs, alcohol, gang participation, or because of her home life. It was because she got pregnant and her “wonderful” boyfriend somehow talked her into dropping out of high school to “help pay for the baby.” This girl was very smart gifted lady but it always seemed like she had this switch of whether she wanted to act smart or when she wanted to acted not so smart. Every time she got around this guy it seemed is would turn the switch to not so smart. I mean this guy was a jock which is fine but the only thing he really cared for was whether he got to play so his grades defiantly showed what he thought about his education. She expressed, “That they were in ‘love.” To me that does not show love of any kind where you sleep with someone and then want them to do all the work. She said, “He finally confessed to never really wanting the kid, he just did whatever she wanted.” I then asked if he ever offered to get married or what. She replied, “Marriage was never brought up because she knew he did not really want it, and that she was not going to force him into anything he did not want.” I then asked, “Then why did you stay with him for so long.” (It was for a couple of years) She sadly said, “Because I loved him, and I wanted him to be around his baby. Yet, in the end I found out that he didn’t return the love” and that he told her that, “The only reason that he really stayed around was because he didn’t find anything better yet.” She would just let him push her around. Now that she is by herself with a child, she started thinking what is left to do. She had a job that barely paid the bills, and she thought, “Do I want my kid growing up like that? Do I want my kid to have nothing?” She made huge efforts to find a better job, but no one wanted someone who didn’t have at least a high school diploma or a G.E.D. Therefore she decided it was time to get back to school, but she had no money and no way to make more. It took her a little bit of time to convince people to give her a chance. Now, she has her G.E.D. and she is preparing to get into college. Her long life dream has been to become a nurse. She has not quite yet decided, but I think that is what she will end up doing is going into the nursing program. (Interview Jessica)
I know that is the shorten version of the story. It shows there are people out there who want to improve themselves, and by helping them we could have great success. Who knows, we could have a genius in waiting in one of the many drop outs in the world, but they just really don’t have the support or the means to finish getting an education now. Some of them have learned from their mistakes and are trying to correct them. It is kind of like when you were younger and did something you shouldn’t have, you turned to your parents for help. These people are turning to anyone for help to improve their lives and to help them fix a wrong. Granted not everyone wants to improve their lives unless it is handed to them, and I am not saying we should give hand outs. I am saying that there has to be a better way to help these people out, the ones who really want help and want to put the effort in to change their lives. We need to remember that nobody is perfect and if we were then there would never be anything wrong in the world no sadness nor happiness. It would just be the same old boring life day after day. What makes life great is that we are able to change when we don’t like the place we are at; to be able to work towards something better whatever that may be. We just lost sight of what is really out there and we need that help to get back on track.
Now, there's an old story that Colin has told about a man named George Ellis, who lived about a hundred years ago. And George Ellis was a janitor. His job was to clean up after the artist Daniel Chester French. Some of you may have heard of French--he's the one who carved the figure of Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial.
So day after day, week after week, month after month, Ellis went about his job, barely uttering a word to Mr. French, other than say the occasional "hello" or "goodbye." And then one day, just when French had nearly completed his masterpiece, Ellis spoke up. He said, "Mr. French, I have a question for you." So the artist said, "What is it?" "Well, what I want to ask is how you knew all along that Mr. Lincoln was sitting inside that block of marble." And as Colin pointed out, that wasn't a silly question. Because sometimes in this country and in our lives, we see blocks of marble and some people can see what's inside and some people can't.(Obama)
Works cited
Abele MacIver, Martha, and Scott Groginsky. "Working Statewide to Boost Graduation Rates." Phi Delta Kappan 92.5 (2011): 16-20. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 17 Oct. 2011.
Bullock, Sam. Personal interview. 8 Oct. 2011.
Conner, Jessica. Personal interview. 7 Oct. 2011.
Florence, Cherry. Personal interview. 9 Oct. 2011.
Longley, Robert “The High Cost of Dropping Out” About.com US Government Info, March 6, 2006. Oct 5, 2011. http://usgovinfo.about.com/b/2006/03/06/high-school-drop-outs-cost-us-cost-of-dropping-out.htm.
“NIDA InfoFacts: High School and Youth Trends” The Science of Drug Abuse & Addiction. Revised 08/10. Oct 5, 2011 http://www.drugabuse.gov/Infofacts/HSYouthtrends.html.internet.
Obama, Barack. "To end the drop-out crisis." Vital Speeches of the Day 76.4 (2010): 186-188. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 17 Oct. 2011.
